Help choosing a major for renewable energy planning/mgmt

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>Hi everyone.</p>

<p>I'm going to be a senior this year and am in the midst of deciding where to apply for college. To start off I'm only considering schools in California, full stop. So that narrows it down quite a bit.</p>

<p>Now for my real question. I want to go into the renewable energy field as a site assessor or similar. Specifically solar and wind, though hydroelectric would be fine too. The basic idea is client contacts the company and you go out to the site and figure out whether it would be cost effective to install solar panels or whathaveyou, where they might go, taking measurements etc. Basically planning projects relating to installation of solar thermal or photovoltaic panels, or possibly windmills or other similar structures.</p>

<p>The question I have is what major would fit this. So far these seem to be the most relevant, in no particular order:
Civ E
Env E
Ele E
Mech E
Env Sci
Cons Mgmt
Ind E
Mat E</p>

<p>I have looked at several universities (Cal Poly SLO, Stanford, UCB, UCSB, Pepperdine, etc.) online catalogs to see what kind of courses are in these majors, and the only one that had directly relevant classes (solar and wind energy science) was Mech E. </p>

<p>As best I can tell, the ideal course would be a degree in Civ E with a minor/focus in Env E or Mech E, taking more relevant classes in other areas as electives. </p>

<p>I would appreciate any thoughts on what I've laid out here.</p>

2

<p>ME or EE. ME is the structural aspects and dynamics, EE is the power generation and transfer aspects. And whatever you miss in course content, you can study yourself. The engineering coursework, even if it does not include a “solar energy systems” or a “wind turbines” course or something, serves just as a basis for the general practices and aspects of engineering and how things work in physics, which can be leveraged to study all kinds of engineered systems.</p>

3

<p>I don’t think Civil Engineering is what you want. What would they work on in this case? The base of a wind turbine? I honestly don’t know what they could work on in renewable energy.</p>

<p>Environmental Engineering is remediation and is anything but glamorous, and imo the title sounds glamorous. They make sure companies are following environmental regulations and help develop solutions to problems to make sure they follow these regulations, without ruining production.</p>

<p>I agree with Reactor.</p>