Sustainability: Energy Transition

Explore sustainable energy with the experts at the University of Canterbury

To tackle the climate crisis, it’s important for us all to understand the complex problems we face and the significant transformational changes required.

On this three-week course, you’ll identify how energy plays a substantial role in our ability to secure a sustainable future.

Guided by the experts at the University of Canterbury (UC) College of Engineering (COE), this course will help you explore the relationship between energy and emissions, and the effects of climate change on the environment and our future.

Understand the complexity of our current energy systems

You’ll explore why our present energy systems are unsuitable as you identify the changes needed to work towards a sustainable future.

You’ll learn about the complexities of these systems and the need to take into account different parameters, including economic viability, so you understand the many factors to consider in energy transition.

Explore the limitations of renewable energy

With an understanding of our current energy systems, you’ll examine the limitations of renewable energy to help you explore solutions to tackle the challenges we face.

You’ll also explore the principle of energy transition and the concept of Energy Return on Energy Invested (ERoEI) for a deeper understanding of energy systems.

By the end of this course, you’ll have the knowledge to recognise the limitations of our current energy systems and identify the path to energy transition and sustainability.

This course is suitable for anyone interested in contributing to building a sustainable future.

It will be particularly of interest if you want to learn about the role of the energy transition in securing sustainability.

• Introduction: the Unsustainability of Continued Growth
• Welcome to the Course
• Course Information
• Introducing Energy Transition
• Building a Positive Future
• Wrap-up of Week 1
• Energy, Emissions and Oil Supply
• Introducing Climate Change
• Global emissions and fossil fuels
• Oil Supply – the Unsustainability of Oil Supply
• Wrap-Up of Week 2
• Renewable Energy Constraints and using EROI to compare energy systems
• Introduction to Renewable Energy
• Renewable Energy Limitations
• Economic viability of Energy Systems
• The Journey to Sustainability
• Your Business Case Proposal
• Course Wrap-Up