Renewable energy education for sustainabledevelopment

Philip Jennings*, Chris Lund

Australian Cooperative Research Centre for Renewable Energy, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA 6150,

Australia

Abstract

Rising international concern about global warming and the rapid development of the

renewable energy industry over recent years has led to a need for multidisciplinaryprograms in energy studies. We have developed a postgraduate program in energy studieswhich is based on the principles of ecologically sustainable development. This program

combines work in energy technology with energy policy, energy economics andenvironmental and social issues. The program is o�ered on campus at Murdoch Universityand by external study, via the internet, throughout Australia and overseas. It has attractedconsiderable interest from students seeking to ®nd new opportunities within the renewable

energy industry. This paper outlines the philosophy of the energy studies program, itsimplementation and outcomes. 7 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Energy is essential for all forms of life. Most obtain it through natural processes

associated with ecological cycles such as the hydrological and carbon cycles. These

natural cycles are characterized by the recycling of natural resources and by the

absence of waste products [9]. However in our quest to increase power supply to

meet the needs of development and population growth we have begun to cause

0960-1481/01/$ - see front matter 7 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

PII: S0960 -1481 (00)00028 -8

Renewable Energy 22 (2001) 113±118

www.elsevier.com/locate/renene

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +61-8-9360-2274; fax: +61-8-8310-1711.

E-mail address: jennings@murdoch.edu.au (P. Jennings).

irreversible damage to the biosphere, which supports all forms of life. Serious airpollution problems have been caused by burning fossil fuels in motor vehicles,homes, factories and power stations. Global warming now appears to beunderway as a result of the enhanced greenhouse e�ect, which is partly caused byour extensive use of hydrocarbon fuels [3].

Concern about these problems has risen rapidly over the past decade andinternational action is now underway to address the causes [2]. This is taking theform of international treaties with mandatory restrictions on the use of fossil fuelsby industrialised nations. These may be achieved via fuel substitution, energymanagement, improved energy e�ciency, the use of renewable energy systems andrestrictions on land clearing [1].

Some of the solutions are technical but there are also other important ways oftackling these problems. They involve policies, legislation, economic incentives andeducation. All of these initiatives have an important role to play in modifyinghuman behaviour and moving society towards a sustainable future.

2. Energy and ecologically sustainable development

Ecologically sustainable development (ESD) has been de®ned in various waysincluding:

Development which meets the needs of the present without compromising theability of future generations to meet their own needs [11] and, Improving thequality of life while living within the carrying capacity of supporting ecosystems[4].

The World Commission on Environment and Development [11] emphasized theimportance of teachers and education for ESD by saying:

The world's teachers . . . have a crucial role to play (in helping to bring about)the extensive social changes (needed for ESD) ([11], p. xiv).

The IUCN [4] underlined the importance of changing attitudes througheducation:

Sustainable living must be the new pattern for all levels, individuals, communities,nations and the world. To adopt the new pattern will require a signi®cant changein the attitudes and practices of many people. We will need to ensure thateducation programs re¯ect the importance of an ethic for living sustainably ([4],p. 5).

Agenda 21 de®ned more precisely the role of education in developingsustainability and set out a challenge for educators in the following terms:

Education is critical for promoting sustainable development and improving the

P. Jennings, C. Lund / Renewable Energy 22 (2001) 113±118114

capacity of the people to address environment and development issues. It is criticalfor achieving environmental and ethical awareness, values and attitudes, skills andbehaviour consistent with sustainable development and for e�ective publicparticipation in decision-making ([10], Ch. 36, p. 2).

Agenda 21 calls on all nations to develop and implement national strategies forESD and notes that scienti®c and technological education in the past has oftenbeen too narrowly-focussed. It advocates a change of approach to meet the needsof ESD and suggests that all students and their teachers should be exposed to theconcepts and methods of ESD as part of their formal education [6,10].

According to Agenda 21 the role for education in achieving a sustainablesociety is to:

. promote environmental and ethical awareness, values, attitudes, skills andbehaviour needed for sustainable development;

. build capacity for nations to develop Agenda 21 action programs;

. train more scientists and engineers with an understanding of ESD and thetechnology for sustainable development;

. re-orient all levels of education towards ESD ([10], p.112).

Education and training therefore have a vital role to play in ESD. They can createawareness of the issues and equip people with the technical, ecological andeconomic knowledge required to implement ESD. Education can provideexamples of ESD in practise and through presentation of these examples createconsumer con®dence in renewable energy and energy management. Education isan essential foundation for market development of the renewable energy industry[5].

Clearly this presents a major challenge to energy educators and the AustralianCooperative Research Centre for Renewable Energy (ACRE) has responded byaddressing these criteria with a multidisciplinary approach to energy studies.

3. Educational program design

In designing the ACRE University Education program it was decided tospeci®cally address the criteria for ESD and this led to an entirely new curriculumin energy studies. Our program also includes the following additional educationalobjectives:

. caters for graduates of any discipline

. provides a multidisciplinary approach

. is widely accessible via external studies and on-line presentation

. suitable for part-time and distance education and continuing professionaleducation.

Using the ESD criteria and these additional educational objectives we have

P. Jennings, C. Lund / Renewable Energy 22 (2001) 113±118 115

developed a coherent stream of units covering all aspects of energy and ESD. Itrequires two years of full time study.

In the ®rst year we o�er units on Energy in Society, Energy Management,Energy Economics, Energy Systems and Energy Policy [5]. These six unitsconstitute the Postgraduate Diploma in Energy Studies which can be studied oncampus or entirely externally via correspondence or the internet. The Diploma canbe completed in 1 year of full-time study or over several years part-time.

Following the completion of the Diploma, students who wish to specialize inrenewable energy technology may complete a further year of study and researchto obtain a Master of Science degree. It includes the following additional unitsRenewable Energy Resources, Renewable Energy Conversion Devices, RenewableEnergy Systems Design and Case Studies of Renewable Energy Systems. The MScalso includes a dissertation that accounts for one third of the student's time overthe year. It involves a practical investigation of a renewable energy system ordevice.

For further details the reader is referred to the education section of ACRE'sweb site http://acre.murdoch.edu.au/education.

4. Student response

The Postgraduate Diploma has been available since 1992 and the Masters waso�ered for the ®rst time in 1998. Units from these programs were o�ered initiallyat Murdoch University and attracted interest from students enrolled in a widerange of disciplines. Following the creation of ACRE the Diploma was o�erednationally in 1998 and attracted a substantial response. Many of the interstate(and overseas) students are studying on-line using the internet version of the units.This is a special feature of the ACRE education program and it is designed tomake it widely available.

On the basis of this experience we have surveyed the market for energy studiesand identi®ed the range of students who are attracted to this ®eld. The results ofour survey indicate that:

. the applicants for admission come primarily from science backgrounds withsmaller numbers from engineering and commerce;

. more than one third of the students come from interstate and are studyingexternally using on-line facilities;

. most of the students are currently employed and have chosen to study part-timeor externally, using on-line study materials [7,8];

. there is a strong demand for multidisciplinary energy studies from overseas butit is di�cult to service the interest from developing countries because of thehigh cost of Australian university fees;

. many undergraduate students from related disciplines choose to take one ormore of the energy studies units as part of their program of study;

. most of the students chose this area of study because of their personal interest

P. Jennings, C. Lund / Renewable Energy 22 (2001) 113±118116

but they also believe that it has good career prospects;. many of the students are motivated by a desire to do something valuable for

society as well as ®nding satisfying employment;. slightly more than half of the students are male;. most of the students expressed their satisfaction with the balance of technology,

policy and economics in the program and with the on-line mode of study.

5. Employment options

Our survey also attempted to ®nd the employment objectives of the applicantsfor the program. In addition we have some information on the employment ofrecent graduates. Our main ®ndings were:

. there is a substantial demand for graduates with quali®cations inmultidisciplinary energy studies;

. the main ®elds of employment are energy policy development, energy planning,energy management, energy education and information, energy research,consulting and systems design;

. the main employers are utilities, government departments, small private ®rms,energy consultants and Universities;

. student preferences are for jobs in systems design, policy analysis, buildingapplications and research;

. currently most of the students are employed in engineering, research or policyareas;

. the market is expanding rapidly as nations face up to global warming. There isa substantial demand for policy analysts to assess proposed measures forgreenhouse gas abatement.

6. Conclusions

On the basis of this work we conclude that:

. energy studies is rapidly emerging as a new discipline of relevance to meetingfuture energy needs within the context of ecologically sustainable development;

. many energy professionals lack formal training in the skills and disciplinesneeded to undertake work on renewable energy systems and energymanagement;

. the availability of external, on-line courses is proving attractive to peopleinterested in energy policy and energy systems. Many of these people have abackground in science or engineering;

. new employment opportunities are opening up for graduates with a broad

P. Jennings, C. Lund / Renewable Energy 22 (2001) 113±118 117

knowledge of the technical, environmental, economic and social issuesconnected to energy conversion and use.

Acknowledgements

This work was carried out with ®nancial support from Murdoch University andthe Australian Cooperative Research Centre for Renewable Energy. The authorswish to thank Trevor Pryor, Kenneth Cheok, Laura Stocker and Frank Harmanfor their input to the development of the energy studies program.

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