Nordic Folkecenter for Renewable Energy in Sønder Ydby in Thy has a 40-year history as an innovation, development and training center for renewable energy solutions. Jane Kruse, director of the Nordic Folkecenter, has been involved since the establishment in 1983, and under her expert wing a deputy director is now employed.
Jane Kruse og Joachim Plaetner Kjeldsen.
Nordic Folkecenter for Renewable Energy has appointed Joachim Plaetner Kjeldsen as deputy director under director Jane Kruse. Joachim is already employed part-time as a journalist, photographer and SoMe manager at the Folkecenter. Jane Kruse continues as principal Director and mentor for the rest of the year.
– Joachim has been with us for almost two years, and in that time he has developed good insight into the Folkecenter’s history, activities and partners. I’m not getting any younger, and I look forward to Joachim and I working more closely together on the day-to-day running of the Folkecenter, says Jane Kruse, who will turn 78 this summer.
Joachim Plaetner Kjeldsen grew up in Villerslev in Sydthy, trained as a journalist and moved back to Thy. He has a past as a press officer, acting press manager and video journalist at Organic Denmark for 11 years, and in recent years, alongside his job at Folkecenter, he has been a freelance video journalist with his own production company.
– Ever since I visited the Folkecenter in ‘physics class’ as a schoolboy in the early 90s, I have been fascinated by the place. The innovative spirit, the people and their dedication. My fascination has only grown in the time I have been employed here, and I look forward to contributing even more to the continued development of the Nordic Folkecenter, says Joachim Plaetner Kjeldsen.
Christian Nereus Grant, chairman of Nordic Folkecenter, views the new duo as a good team.
– I have known both Jane and Joachim for a long time, and I feel confident in the fact that we have found a really good team with equal parts experience, history and innovative thinking, who together can lay the tracks for the future of the Folkecenter. Jane’s experience and know-how is invaluable, and therefore it has been crucially important for this process to put together a duo with good chemistry and mutual personal trust and respect. And I think we have succeeded in that, says Christian Nereus Grant.
Nordic Folkecenter for Renewable Energy currently has 13 employees.
About Nordic Folkecenter
When, in the wake of the oil crises of the 70s, Denmark decided not to pursue the nuclear power route, the Danish blacksmiths were among the first to throw themselves into developing alternatives to fossil energy sources. To build the machines for harvesting renewable energies. However the blacksmiths needed engineering help, and with that purpose the Nordic Folkecenter for Sustainable Energy (then ‘Northwest Jutland Folkecenter for Renewable energy’) was established in 1983. Today, the Folkecenter runs ‘the National test center for small and medium-sized wind turbines’ in Hundborg, ‘the Wave power test center in Nissum Bredning’ as well as the developement, education and promotion of renewable energy and sustainabilty in developing regions around the Globe.