Coordinator: Dr. Tim Volk

The development of sustainable sources of energy has become a critical national and global issue due to concerns about the quality and quantity of the different potential resources, energy security, and potential impacts of each on the environment and human health. It is essential that our society and energy professionals gain an understanding of production and conversion of different forms of energy, their current and future supplies, the markets and policy mechanisms that regulate their supply, and the associated impacts on the environment for each fuel. In the past both traditional and renewable energy sources have been studied one resource at a time and usually from the perspective of a single discipline. This minor will provide students an opportunity to examine different sources of traditional and renewable energy simultaneously in the context of our total energy use using a systems perspective. Students will be exposed to views from a variety of disciplines as they wrestle with a wide array of issues related to current and future energy supply and use.

The Renewable Energy minor is available to all ESF undergraduate students (except students who are in the Sustainable Energy Management Major or the Renewable Energy option in Environmental Science) who have a GPA of 2.70 or better by the end of their sophomore year. The minor will require a minimum of 15 credits, 12 of which are required courses. The remaining 3 credits can be selected from a list of suggested courses.

Fifteen credit hours of courses are required. Specified courses: SRE 325 Energy Systems (3); SRE 335 Renewable Energy (3); SRE 479 Life Cycle Assessment (3); Either CME 305 Sustainable Energy Systems for Buildings (3) or SRE 441 Biomass Energy (3) and a minimum of three credits from the following list of suggested courses: CME 305 Sustainable Energy Systems for Buildings (3) OR SRE 441 Biomass Energy; SRE 422 Energy Markets and Regulation (3); SRE 454 Renewable Energy Finance and Analysis (3); SRE 416 Sustainable Energy Policy (3); SRE 419 Policy Assessment Methodologies (3); ERE 351 Basic Engineering Thermodynamics (2); ERE 380 Energy Systems Engineering; ERE 519 Green Entrepreneurship (3); FCH 360 Physical Chemistry I (3); PSE 361 Engineering Thermodynamics (3); PSE 370 Principles of Mass and Energy Balance (3).