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MOOC
Meeting growing global energy demand, while mitigating climate change and environmental impacts, requires a large-scale transition to clean, sustainable energy systems. Students and professionals around the world must prepare for careers in this future energy landscape, gaining relevant skills and knowledge to expedite the transformation in industry, government and nongovernmental organizations, academia, and nonprofits. The building sector represents a large percentage of overall energy consumption, and contributes 40% of the carbon emissions driving climate change. Yet buildings also offer opportunities for substantial, economical energy efficiency gains. From retrofit projects to new construction, buildings require a context-specific design process that integrates efficiency strategies and technologies. In this course, you'll be introduced to a range of technologies and analysis techniques for designing comfortable, resource-efficient buildings. The primary focus of this course is the study of the thermal and luminous behavior of buildings. You'll examine the basic scientific principles underlying these phenomena, and use computer-aided design software and climate data to explore the role light and energy can play in shaping architecture. These efficiency design elements are critical to the larger challenge of producing energy for a growing population while reducing carbon emissions.
- Subjects:
- Environmental Engineering, Building Services Engineering, and Building and Real Estate
- Keywords:
- Buildings -- Energy conservation Sustainable architecture Sustainable buildings -- Design construction
- Resource Type:
- MOOC
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MOOC
Too often modern cities and suburbs are disorganized places where most new development makes daily life less pleasant, creates more traffic congestion, and contributes to climate change. This trend has to change; and our course is going to show you how. Ecodesign means integrating planning, urban design and the conservation of natural systems to produce a sustainable built and natural environment. Ecodesign can be implemented through normal business practices and the kinds of capital programs and regulations already in use in most communities. We will show you how ecodesign has already been used for exceptional projects in many cities and suburbs—from Hammarby Sjöstad in Stockholm to False Creek North in Vancouver to Battery Park City in Manhattan, as well as many smaller-scale examples that can be adopted in any community. Cities and suburbs built according to ecodesign principles can and should become normal, instead of just a few special examples, transforming urban development into desirable, lower-carbon, compact and walkable communities and business centers. As this course describes specific solutions to the vexing urban challenges we all face, course participants can see how these ideas might be applied in their own area. Participants will learn the conceptual framework of ecodesign, see many real, successful examples, and come to understand the tools, processes, and techniques for policy development and implementation. Ecodesign thinking is relevant to anyone who has a part in shaping or influencing the future of cities and suburbs – citizens, students, designers, public officials, and politicians. At the conclusion of the course participants will have the tools and strategies necessary to advocate policies and projects for a neighbourhood or urban district using the ecodesign framework.
- Subjects:
- Environmental Engineering, Building Services Engineering, and Building and Real Estate
- Keywords:
- Cities towns -- Growth City planning -- Environmental aspects Regional planning
- Resource Type:
- MOOC
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MOOC
Cities are built site by site. Site planning has been taught in urban planning, landscape architecture and architecture programs for over a century and continues to be a foundation course for those who aspire to plan the built environment. It is a required subject on licensing and certification programs for each of these disciplines. Mastering the art of site planning requires substantive knowledge, well-honed design skills, and familiarity with examples and prototypes of site organization. This course provides the perspectives of leading academics and practitioners on the important issues in preparing site plans. It offers a foundation of knowledge, and the opportunity to apply what is learned in preparing a site plan.
- Subjects:
- Environmental Engineering, Building Services Engineering, and Building and Real Estate
- Keywords:
- Building sites -- Planning
- Resource Type:
- MOOC
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MOOC
Humanity faces an immense challenge: providing abundant energy to everyone without wrecking the planet. If we want a high-energy future while protecting the natural world for our children, we must consider the environmental consequences of energy production and use. But money matters too: energy solutions that ignore economic costs are not realistic, particularly in a world where billions of people currently can’t afford access to basic energy services. How can we proceed? Energy Within Environmental Constraints won’t give you the answer. Instead, we will teach you how to ask the right questions and estimate the consequences of different choices. This course is rich in details of real devices and light on theory. You won’t find any electrodynamics here, but you will find enough about modern commercial solar panels to estimate if they would be profitable to install in a given location. We emphasizes costs: the cascade of capital and operating costs from energy extraction all the way through end uses. We also emphasize quantitative comparisons and tradeoffs: how much more expensive is electricity from solar panels than from coal plants, and how much pollution does it prevent? Is solar power as cost-effective an environmental investment as nuclear power or energy efficiency? And how do we include considerations other than cost? This course is intended for a diverse audience. Whether you are a student, an activist, a policymaker, a business owner, or a concerned citizen, this course will help you start to think carefully about our current energy system and how we can improve its environmental performance.
- Subjects:
- Environmental Engineering, Building Services Engineering, and Building and Real Estate
- Keywords:
- Environmental protection Environmental management Renewable energy sources Power resources
- Resource Type:
- MOOC
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MOOC
Wind turbines and solar panels are likely to play a critical role in achieving a low-carbon power sector that helps address climate change and local pollution, resulting from fossil fuel power generation. Because wind and solar power output is weather-dependent, it is variable in nature and somewhat more uncertain than output from conventional fossil fuel generators. It is therefore important to consider how to manage high penetrations of solar and wind so as to maintain electricity system reliability. This introductory course, delivered by Ieading academics from Imperial College London, with technical input and contributions from the National Energy Renewable Lab (Golden, Colorado), will discuss what challenges variable output renewables pose to the achievability of a reliable, stable electricity system, how these challenges can be addressed and at what costs. Its overall objective is to demonstrate that there is already a range of established technologies, policies and operating procedures to achieve a flexible, stable, reliable electricity system with a high penetration of renewables such as wind and solar. The course uses a variety of country and context-specific examples to demonstrate the concepts. Policy makers, regulators, grid operators and investors in renewable electricity will benefit from a solid understanding of these considerations, thereby helping them drive forward the development of a fit-for-purpose clean power system in their own regional context.
- Subjects:
- Environmental Engineering and Building Services Engineering
- Keywords:
- Electric power production Renewable energy sources Electric power distribution
- Resource Type:
- MOOC
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MOOC
This course provides the tools needed to build a low-carbon power sector around the world. By diving into the perspective of different players in the power sector - from investors through to utilities, regulators and project developers - you will be able to choose the right strategies, policies and other levers needed to incentivise a cleaner power mix in your own context. This course explores the mix of approaches that can create a pro-renewables environment. It explores this from a policy, regulatory and supply-chain perspective and examines the incentives and rules available. Key policies are brought to life through case studies, learning from both success and failure. Key messages of the course include: - Ambitions for renewable electricity must be grounded in technical and financial feasibility - Pro-renewables environments recognise the needs of energy supply chain actors (e.g. project developers, utilities, regulators, electricity customers) and balances pricing, fiscal and financial and wider policies to incentivise and drive deployment - There are multiple ways to encourage deployment of renewables across different scales – these have strengths and weaknesses and must balance rate of deployment, affordability and efficiency of generation - Incentives and rules are a package and can be aligned to deliver affordable, efficient renewable electricity - several real-world examples demonstrate this - Different countries have succeeded and failed in creating pro-renewables environments – demonstrating that while lessons can be used from these experiences, there is no single route to success and the environment must be bespoke to the circumstances of the country. This course should help decision makers across the electricity supply chain, in both the public and private sector, understand what mix of incentives is ideal from their perspective.
- Subjects:
- Environmental Engineering, Building Services Engineering, and Environmental Policy and Planning
- Keywords:
- Electric power distribution -- Environmental aspects Renewable energy sources
- Resource Type:
- MOOC
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Courseware
This course makes students familiar with the design of offshore wind farms in general and focuses on the foundation design in particular. The course is based on actual cases of real offshore wind farms that have been built recently or will be built in the near future.
- Subjects:
- Environmental Engineering
- Keywords:
- Renewable energy sources Wind power Offshore wind power plants
- Resource Type:
- Courseware
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Courseware
How can we ensure the continuous supply of the increasingly scarce raw materials that are needed to make the products we use every day? In this course, we will look at the potential benefits of circular procurement and how recycling technologies and more efficient ways of collecting and recycling critical raw materials (CRMs) can make your business and production more resource resilient. A good number of the materials found in everyday products are now referred to as “critical”. This means that there is a risk of failure in their supply and that they are also critical in terms of economic importance. Many metals, for instance, are already critical or could become critical in the near future due to their limited availability and the growing demand for products worldwide. Think of the newest electronic products that contain critical metals such as gallium, which is used in integrated circuits; beryllium, used in electronic and telecommunications equipment and permanent magnets and germanium found in infra-red optics. Innovative product design and reusing, recycling and remanufacturing products can help to deal with a raw materials shortage. But this can only provide an integrated solution if we keep CRMs in the loop through smarter CRM management. The starting point is to identify CRMs in products. It is not always clear what materials are in which products. It is, therefore, necessary to keep all metals in the loop for as long as possible. Scarcity in the supply chain can not only damage businesses but also negatively impact economic development and the environment. For this reason, the course will also discuss environmental issues and electric and electronic waste regulations. This course will be of value to a wide range of professionals working in or interested in this field. These include professionals involved in producing products containing CRMs (such as electronics) as well as local or national government officials tasked with organizing waste management and recycling for these products. Students interested in the field of waste management will also find this course helpful for their studies in electronics, industrial design, and industrial ecology.
- Subjects:
- Environmental Engineering
- Keywords:
- Refuse refuse disposal Waste products Recycling (Waste etc.) Raw materials Strategic materials
- Resource Type:
- Courseware
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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
Photovoltaic systems are often placed into a microgrid, a local electricity distribution system that is operated in a controlled way and includes both electricity users and renewable electricity generation. This course deals with DC and AC microgrids and covers a wide range of topics, from basic definitions, through modelling and control of AC and DC microgrids to the application of adaptive protection in microgrids. You will master various concepts related to microgrid technology and implementation, such as smart grid and virtual power plant, types of distribution network, markets, control strategies and components. Among the components special attention is given to operation and control of power electronics interfaces. You will familiarize yourself with the advantages and challenges of DC microgrids (which are still in an early stage). You will have the opportunity to master the topic of microgrids through an exercise in which you will evaluate selected pilot sites where microgrids were deployed. The evaluation will take the form of a simulation assignment and include a peer review of the results.
- Subjects:
- Environmental Engineering and Building Services Engineering
- Keywords:
- Solar energy Renewable energy sources Photovoltaic power systems Microgrids (Smart power grids)
- Resource Type:
- Courseware