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2019
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Courseware
For the first time in history, the number of world citizens without access to electricity services has dropped below one billion, but still more than 2.8 billion people lack access to clean and affordable cooking fuels. Access to clean, affordable and reliable energy services for all world citizens is a precondition for the achievement of many other Sustainable Development Goals, such as health and economic development. The provision of sustainable energy services for all is not just a technological challenge or one confined to developing countries. Industrial and post-industrial societies also need to address issues of energy poverty and energy injustice. Rather than tackling the technological dimension of the formidable challenge to provide an inclusive energy system with renewable and climate-neutral energy resources, this course will focus on its social and institutional dimension. Introduction to the principle of the 4 As of energy services – Accessibility, Availability, Affordability, and Acceptability (environmental and social) will enrich your perspective as an engineering professional. Balancing these four critical and interdependent criteria is a recurrent challenge for individuals and society as a whole, as the characterization of the four As evolves with economic development and changing societal preferences. You will learn how the rules of the game as defined in laws, regulation and market designs impact the balance between the 4As. Using a wider socio-technical systems perspective you will discover new solutions for the inclusive provision of energy services beyond the purely technological solutions. After this course you can engage in a richer, more informed debate about how to achieve an inclusive energy system. You will be able to translate this knowledge into strategies to serve society’s future energy needs. The cases presented from developed and developing countries will help you to develop and test your analytical skills. Interviews with industry leaders shaping the energy system will challenge you to reflect on the position these leaders take and the interests they serve. Lastly, you will put yourself to the test by demonstrating your newly acquired knowledge and skills as a strategic policy advisor, in writing guidelines for a strategic action plan for the energy system and institutional context which are relevant for you, in your company, your city or your country.
- Subjects:
- Environmental Engineering and Environmental Policy and Planning
- Keywords:
- Energy policy Sustainable development Power resources -- Economic aspects Power resources -- Environmental aspects
- Resource Type:
- Courseware
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Courseware
Reduction of energy consumption of buildings is an important step in the move towards a sustainable economy. How can buildings be made net zero energy, in different climates? This course introduces you to zero energy design. It will teach you a stepped approach to design a zero energy climate concept for existing buildings: homes, schools, offices, shops etc. It will demonstrate how an integrated approach, which takes into account both passive measures (such as thermal insulation and sun shading) and active measures (such as heat pumps and photovoltaic panels), can deliver the best results. It will do so by providing you with an overview of possible measures, and through reviewing several case studies of zero energy buildings in the Netherlands, with lessons for other climates as well. Thus, you will learn which measures are most suitable for individual buildings under local climate conditions. This course is for anyone interested in making buildings more energy efficient, who already possess asic technical knowledge.
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Video
Engineers need to be able to predict how water will behave in order to design structures that manage or control it. And fluids don’t always behave the way you’d expect. On this episode, we’re talking about one of the most interesting phenomena in open-channel flow: the hydraulic jump.
- Subjects:
- Hydraulic Engineering
- Keywords:
- Hydraulics Hydraulic jump
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
A weir is a small dam built across a river to control the upstream water level. Weirs have been used for ages to control the flow of water in streams, rivers, and other water bodies. Unlike large dams which create reservoirs, the goal of building a weir across a river isn’t to create storage, but only to gain some control over the water level. Over time, the term weir has taken on a more general definition in engineering to apply to any hydraulic control structure that allows water to flow over its top, often called its crest. In fact, the spillways of many large dams use weirs as control structures. So how do they work?
- Subjects:
- Hydraulic Engineering
- Keywords:
- Dams Hydraulics Weirs
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
Dams serve a wide variety of purposes from hydropower to flood control to storage of water for municipal and industrials uses. But when a dam’s useful purpose fades away, the structure itself still remains. Dams come in all shapes and sizes, but contrary to what you might think, the most dangerous dams are often the smallest, also known as low head dams.
- Subjects:
- Hydraulic Engineering
- Keywords:
- Dam safety Dams Hydraulics
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
This video gives a quick overview of how we build underwater structures. Oceans, rivers, and lakes are often beautiful, but they’re not necessarily convenient places to build things. Yet, many types of the infrastructure we depend on every day, including wharves, bridges, and dams, are founded below the water. How do they do it? On this episode, we're talking about different types of underwater construction, including cofferdams, diversions, caissons, and drilled shafts. Whether the construction site is on the bottom of a lake or river, or simply located in the floodplain and only at risk during extreme weather, engineers and construction contractors put a significant amount of thought and consideration into the feasibility and costs of managing this water.
- Subjects:
- Hydraulic Engineering
- Keywords:
- Underwater construction Hydraulic engineering
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
Traffic management in dense urban areas is an extremely complex problem with a host of conflicting goals and challenges. One of the most fundamental of those challenges happens at an intersection, where multiple streams of traffic - including vehicles, bikes and pedestrians - need to safely, and with any luck, efficiently, cross each others’ paths. However we accommodate it now or in future, traffic will continue to be one of the biggest challenges in our urban areas and traffic signals will continue to be one of its solutions.
- Subjects:
- Transportation
- Keywords:
- Traffic signs signals Roads -- Interchanges intersections Traffic flow
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
We normally build a dam to hold water back and store it for use in water supply, irrigation, hydropower, or flood control. But sometimes we have to let some water go. Whether we need it downstream or the impounded water behind the dam is simply too full to store any more, nearly every dam needs a spillway to safely discharge water. The spillway is a critical part of any dam and often the most complex component. So how does it work?
- Subjects:
- Hydraulic Engineering
- Keywords:
- Hydraulic structures Spillways Dams Reservoirs Diversion structures (Hydraulic engineering)
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
The modern world depends on electricity. It’s a crucial resource, especially in urban areas, but electricity can’t be created, stored, and provided at a later time. The instant it’s produced, it’s used no matter how far apart the producer is from the user. And the infrastructure that makes all this possible is one of humanity’s most important and fascinating engineering achievements: the power grid.
- Subjects:
- Building Services Engineering and Electrical Engineering
- Keywords:
- Electric power distribution
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
This video continues the series on the power grid by diving deeper into the engineering of large-scale electricity generation. The importance of electricity in our modern world can hardly be overstated. What was a luxury a hundred years ago is now a critical component to the safety, prosperity, and well-being of nearly everyone. Generation is the first step electricity takes on its journey through the power grid, the gigantic machine that delivers energy to millions of people day in and day out. So how does it work?
- Subjects:
- Building Services Engineering and Electrical Engineering
- Keywords:
- Electric power production
- Resource Type:
- Video