Topic outline

  • Introduction

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    The course is designed for university students, both bachelor and master level. There are no study program limitations. The teaching approach is multidisciplinary.

    The course outlines possible pathways to reach a low-carbon society by replacing fossil fuels with alternatives. It frames the problem of organizing a socially-inclusive and sustainable energy transition with a focus on SDG 7 "Affordable and sustainable energy" and SDG 13 "Climate Action". It provides technical details on applications in electricity generation and the provision of heating solutions along with their pros and cons. 

    The module has the following structure:

    1. Submodul (requires about 2h): Decarbonizing global energy systems:

      • Framing lecture "Decarbonizing global energy systems'', covering the introduction to energy systems and energy services. The lecture gives a perspective on sustainability (including the way forward) along with global trends in the energy system and across economic sectors. Participants learn about the sustainability link between the material and energy systems. 
      • Reading assignment plus addressing 5 exam questions.

    1. Submodul (requires about 3h): Socially inclusive energy transition and co-benefits

      • Lecture "Smart - not outsmarted citizens". Using the case study of smart cities, relevant megatrends for linking digitization and sustainable development of the energy system are introduced. Upcoming data needs, smart energy technologies, co-benefits and trade-offs of the energy transformation are covered.
      • Animated documentary: Power to and by the people. The documentary explains facts and figures around the active involvement of citizens into the energy transition in Europe. It covers aspects of e-democracy and e-justice.  
      • Assignment (small research project) and addressing 4 exam questions.

    1. Submodul: Decarbonizing electricity production (requires about 2.5 h):

      • Lecture: Decarbonizing electricity production. This lecture introduces participants to low carbon technologies, covering solar PV and CSP, wind energy, hydropower, geothermal energy, biomass-based energy, nuclear energy. Overall aspects of ramping up these technologies in current energy systems as well as their sustainability impacts and pros and cons are discussed.
      • Video watching assignment plus addressing 4 exam questions.

    1. Submodul: Decarbonizing heating services (requires about 1.5 h).

      • Lecture: Decarbonizing heating services. This lecture presents an overview of technical and sustainability aspects of decarbonizing the heat sector, covering an introduction to the principle of heat pumps, solar heating systems and low carbon district heating, as well as a reflection about the hydrogen potential for the sector.
      • Assignment (small research project) plus addressing 5 exam questions

    License

    The module is licensed as Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

    The two authors are from the University of Applied Science, Norway:

    ●       Valeria Jana Schwanitz (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8752-2754, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Valeria-Schwanitz) and

    ●       August Wierling (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7443-7593, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/August-Wierling-2).


  • Decarbonizing global energy systems

  • Socially inclusive energy transition and co-benefits

  • Decarbonizing electricity production

  • Decarbonizing heating services