Undergraduate Course: Sustainable Energy Technologies 4 (MECE10011)
Course Outline
| School | School of Engineering |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | This course aims to provide an introduction to the engineering principles and designs underpinning key sustainable / renewable energy technologies. It is structured to familiarise students with an analytical toolkit to allow them to independently appraise such technologies and their role in the energy system. |
| Course description |
The course offers a reasonably in depth introduction to renewable energy technologies. It sets renewable energy in the wider context and develops a basic qualitative and quantitative toolkit for appraising technologies. It examines each of the major technologies covering aspects such as: Resource, Conversion technologies, Practicalities, Economics and Environmental impacts. Finally it briefly examines how renewables can be integrated effectively within the energy system.
The course provides sufficient depth and coverage to build a comprehensive understanding of renewable energy whilst acting as an introduction to more specialist courses on individual technology areas (e.g. wind energy). The course material requires numeracy and knowledge of basic physics concepts.
The course deals mainly with renewable electricity generation; nuclear and conventional power is excluded. The lectures are:
- Sustainable energy: the context
- Hydropower
- Bioenergy
- Onshore and offshore wind
- Wave power
- Tidal power
- Solar energy
- Economics
- Integration of renewables
The course is lecture based which provides efficient summary of key material and techniques. These are supplemented by an extensive tutorial question set, examples classes and a text book.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of the course, a student should
1. understand the principles of operation of sustainable energy conversion by wind; wave; tidal; solar; bioenergy; hydropower; and other technologies;
2. understand and be able to apply the principal aspects of engineering design underpinning these technologies including basic quantitative techniques;
3. have a reasoned appreciation of the constraints on each technology, both imposed by physical fundamentals, and by current levels of technology and market;
4. understand the fundamentals of grid integration of renewable energy and the problems and constraints associated with this;
5. understand the fundamentals of economic analysis as applied to renewable energy technologies.
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Reading List
| Boyle, 2011, Renewable Energy, 3rd Edition, Oxford University Press. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | renewable energy,sustainable energy |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Hannah Chalmers
Tel: (0131 6)50 5694
Email: hannah.chalmers@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mr James Foster
Tel: (0131 6)51 3562
Email: James.Foster@ed.ac.uk |
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