As a person successfully completing the course, you can make an assessment of the potentials of renewable energies, particularly from the technical and physical perspective, but also from environmental, economic, ethical and global political perspectives. Both the energy resources themselves as well as the technical implementation for energy production will be considered. In addition, the content design provides interfaces for particular professional activity and allows working on individual issues and the transfer of results to real-world applications.
The following content will be addressed as part of the professional development studies course:
| Energy | Definition of important basic concepts such as energy or power, thermodynamic principles, conversion processes, energy balances and current energy demand scenarios |
| Resources | Introduction to the classification of renewable energy by primary sources: Solar, geothermal, planetary motion (tidal forces) and the characterisation of renewable resources: Photovoltaic and solar thermal technology, wind energy, hydro-electric power, biomass and geothermal energy (in each case according to origin, characteristics, scale, physical description, measurability, consideration of potential) |
| Energetic context | Limitations of conventional energy systems based on fossil or nuclear fuels, multidisciplinary consideration (ecological, economical, ideological and political), discussion of potential alternative renewable energy generation, introduction to energy efficiency |
| Technical implementation | Physical basics and their application with regard to each resource; overview of the current system technology |
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Extended energetic context |
Technology-oriented context representation; an introduction to current network structures and technologies; overview of storage technologies; terminology and implementation of smart technologies; the DESERTEC project as an example of large-scale projects; outlook for regulatory framework conditions and energy management |
In-depth study and personal reference
In the "technical application” topic complex, the participants themselves can focus on a specific subject. Alongside the obligatory elements of photovoltaic technology and wind energy, two further directions for in-depth study from the areas of solar thermal, water power, biomass and geothermal can be selected by choice based on the professional or personal needs or interests of the student.
The in-depth study should then be created out of one of these four topics. The issues this addresses may be chosen from the student's own professional context or developed from a pool of previously considered topics.