solar/renewable energy

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>As the title suggests, can anyone suggest degrees/courses or even schools that would fit well for this type of work. I'm also very interested in mechanical engineering, so I'm having an identity crisis of sorts....</p>

<p>Would an undergrad degree in mechanical and then a masters or doctorate slighted towards renewable energy (perhaps material science or electrical) work well for this?</p>

<p>The mech degree would be more for myself than anything, just because I find it the most interesting to me, but as far as careers are concerned I really like the prospects of renewable energy for the future.</p>

2

<p>I am aspiring to do the same exact thing. I am going to major in Mechanical Engineering, with a focus on sustainability and renewable energy production. Schools (I know Cornell does for sure) have specific courses on renewable energy that fit into the engineering curriculum very nicely. Other schools to look at: Cal, Northwestern, Duke. </p>

<p>I suggest going onto your school’s engineering department website, and look for “course offerings.” </p>

<p>Find courses that focus on renewable energy, such as this one from Northwestern, which I plan on taking if I enroll:</p>

<p>"Title: Introduction to Energy Systems 21st Century</p>

<p>Number: ISEN 210</p>

<p>Time: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Friday, 1-1:50</p>

<p>Description: This survey course provides an overview of energy issues in the context of climate change and global sustainability. Energy demands for industrial, transportation, housing, and commercial uses are presented, and strategies for demand reduction are discussed. Energy supply is presented from the points of view both of largely mature technologies (fossil and nuclear fuels, hydro power) and of upcoming renewable sources (solar, wind, geothermal, wave and tidal, and biofuels). Issues associated with energy storage (batteries) and transport (smart net) are discussed, with particular emphasis on the hydrogen economy. While this course will address many technical and scientific aspects of energy, no prerequisite technical courses are required from students. Guest lecturers will present other non-technical facets of the energy topic, including social, legal, and economic issues.</p>

<p>Prerequisites: none - freshmen and non-majors are very welcome"</p>

<p>I think these are the kind of classes you are looking for.</p>

3

<p>There are a lot of threads about renewable energy this year.</p>

<p>MechE will serve you perfectly well if you want to work on renewable energy, although other majors are fine too. Good luck.</p>

4

<p>If i had a ‘dollar’ for every time someone said renewable…</p>

<p>Anyway, I think there arent any courses that actually teach you about renewable energy in the major sense, but i believe that if you want to learn about renewable energy to make the world a better place why not just study how to make efficient systems?</p>

<p>We still use less than 40% of the power produced by the average car engine. Instead of looking for “green stuff” in corn fields, why not find a better way to burn gasoline and use it 90-99% ?</p>

<p>Why not make friction as less as possible and use the same turbine engine? </p>

<p>Mit found a way to charge batteries in less than 2 minutes, so instead of looking for new materials, they found a way to charge the ions faster hence consuming less electricity. See? Same major, same old stuff, new methods/approaches. Hope that helps~</p>

5

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<p>That class doesn’t look very informative from an engineering standpoint, but I agree it’s probably interesting if you can knock out some gen ed hours with it.</p>

<p>Anyway, mechanical, electrical and materials science & engineering will get you where you want to go. My personal opinion is that electrical engineering is most appropriate for solar because there’s a lot of semiconductor device physics that goes into making good cells.</p>

6

<p>I’m from CO, so the NREL is an option for summer internships (depending on if I’m hired). Other than that I don’t see too many obvious routes in while at school (solar decathlon comes to mind)</p>

7

<p>Im looking into sort of the same thing as you. I want to find ways to make efficient energy systems, whether its wind, solar, nuclear, or with fossil fuels. I’m thinking I’ll probably do mechE and from what I’ve seen so far Oregon St. has a pretty good program for alt. energy.</p>