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For Kristina Espersen, energy systems are about thinking big and seeing connections across solutions and technology. As project manager at the company PlanEnergi, she helps to bring Danish knowledge and energy know-how out into the world.
During her studies as an energy planner at Aalborg University, Kristina Espersen did an internship at the Danish Embassy in London. The knowledge she acquired there now benefits the company PlanEnergi where she works as a project manager and helps sell Danish knowledge about district heating systems to freezing Britons.
Today, district heating accounts for only two percent of total heating in England, but a political decision requires that this increase to at least 16 percent by 2030. Therefore, the British are looking particularly towards Denmark, experts in district heating.
− I know the British energy sector quite well from my internship in London. I worked to influence the British government to implement district heating, says Kristina Espersen.
− PlanEnergi has collaborated with a British company in the past, and when I was hired, it developed further from there. Now we see the British market as an opportunity for the company, she says.
For Kristina Espersen, a sustainable energy solution is not about looking at individual, technical solutions, but about viewing things in a helicopter perspective, whether in Denmark or Great Britain.
− You have to look at connections. You cannot put up a wind turbine without also having the environment, urban planning, and the political angle in view. As an energy planner, I look at the entire system and how the systems interact, she explains.
− It's definitely the international perspectives that attract me. It is exciting to work with district heating systems in Denmark, but what drives me is to be able to spread this concept in Great Britain as well as elsewhere in the world.
At PlanEnergi, her employer is more than satisfied with this young energy planner with a global outlook.
The fact that things change quickly does not scare Kristina Espersen. One of the things she emphasizes from her studies is the ability to constantly acquire new knowledge that can build on the old.
− I’m very happy that I have learned to learn new things and constantly acquire knowledge. Technological development is taking place faster than books can be written. The math, the systems and the programs may not change, but everything we use them for does, so it's really important to be able to keep up, she says.