What Type of Engineering Major for a Career in Sustainable Energy?

I am a senior in high school and am having trouble deciding which engineering major to pursue. (The colleges I’m looking at don’t have sustainable energy engineering)

I’m thinking Mechanical, Environmental/Civil, or Electrical. I’m not 100% sure on my career choice, and it’s always subject to change.

So, which major is best if I’m thinking sustainable energy? (specifically designing new renewable energy, and improving current sources)

What type of engineering is best if I want to keep my options open? (I’ve heard that mechanical engineering is best in that case, but am worried that MechE is an over saturated major- not sure if that’s true though)

Any other engineering majors that I should consider?

Colleges don’t have “sustainable energy engineering” because that isn’t an actual thing. That’s just a buzzword, and I’d be skeptical of any engineering major with that title. The myriad areas that would qualify as “sustainable energy” are going to require the input of literally every variety of engineer.

ME and EE are probably two of the your best options. They both work on pretty much all forms of alternative energy whether it be solar, hydroelectric, wind, etc. They also lead to more job opportunities than environmental so if you ever did want to switch sectors OR you can’t find a job in sustainable energy right out of school, you will have plenty of options. Not that you won’t as an environmental engineer, but just by the numbers, EE’s and ME’s will have more.

If you did EE you should probably focus in power engineering because those students focus more on generating, distributing, and transmitting large amounts of electrical power (as opposed to other concentrations which would focus more on low power electronics, wireless systems, etc).

Also note EE and ME are much more math intensive when it comes to the college curriculum. So I hope you were able to handle your higher up math classes including calculus because they aren’t going away and you will see more.

Most engineering projects, no matter what field they are in, are typically made up of various engineering specialties. So, you can choose what major you like and then when you graduate, choose what type field you want to work in.

For instance: I worked on a large commercial solar power project. We had civil, mechanical materials, electrical and manufacturing engineers working on the project. It even breaks down further into subspecialties: soils, structural, dynamics, thermal, fluids, heat transfer, power (electrical), controls, welding and many more.

I got a certificate in “Energy Innovation and Emerging Technologies” a few years ago, and was surprised at the number of Materials Science people in the field. They work on things like solar cells and batteries. In fact, I had a neighbor with a degree in Materials Science who worked at, ahem, Solyndra.

All kinds of engineering majors can be applied to the field.

The most encompassing degree is Energy Systems Engineering (ESE). The problem is, it’s so new there are only two ABET accredited ESE programs in the nation, Wyoming and Oregon State. Others are on their way. It could be the cat’s meow, or it could be like BME where you don’t get enough depth in any one area that it’s really useful as a stand alone BS. In any case, here’s links to the two that are accredited.

http://www.uwyo.edu/mechanical/

http://mime.oregonstate.edu/academics/undergrad/ese