This module helps students understand the sustainability challenges around renewable and non-renewable resource use and to apply methods and tools to analyze energy systems. Students that are interested in the energy and resource transition can take this module.

NOTE: following this module does not guarantee direct access to the master Energy Science. 

This module is taught in English.

Programme
This module consists of two courses:
Period 2: Sustainable Resource Use - 7,5 EC
Period 2: Energy Analysis - 7,5 EC

After the Sustainable Resource Use course, you will be able to:

• Identify different types of resources and the sustainability challenges of their supply and use;
• Contrast and synthesize different perspectives on sustainable resource use from e.g. consumers, producers, governments, NGOs or companies;
• Measure resource use at different scales (e.g. company, city, country) by applying material flow analysis
• Explain and evaluate different approaches to analysing the impacts of resource use
• Design strategies for making resource use more sustainable

After the Energy Analysis course, the student is able to: 

• explain energy demand with the concept of energy functions, and analyse energy demand of a single site and describe methods to manage energy demand;
• describe the energy supply/demand systems and the energy markets for the various energy carriers and use (national) energy statistics;
• explain the concepts exergy, higher and lower heating value, primary and secondary energy and load factor and use these concepts in calculations with regard to energy demand applications, like refrigerators, boilers, cars etc.; 
• compute physical and monetary energy intensity indices and use the concepts of volume, structure and efficiency to carry out a simple decomposition analysis of energy demand;
• use economic and techno-economic tools and the theories of technological scaling and learning to assess energy technologies and to describe energy savings potentials; 
• analyze an energy chain and apply life cycle energy analysis to energy systems, using tools like process- and input-output analysis, and allocation methods;
• describe the main energy policy instruments and the main approaches to energy modelling and scenario development, and apply these in simple settings.

• Having passed at least 120 EC from your Bachelor programme including the propaedeutic year
• Having a background in either life, natural and/or social sciences with a strong affinity in the field of mathematics and in natural sciences (systems analysis, chemistry, physics, biology, energy science)

For Sustainable Resource Use: Scientific articles and reports are made available on Blackboard.

For Energy Analysis:
Kornelis Blok and Evert Nieuwlaar, Introduction to Energy Analysis, Routledge, London and New York, 3rd editionISBN9780367434816

Information about the timetable can be found in MyTimetable. The timetable is definitively known approximately 4 weeks prior to a new teaching period.

Period 2: 11 November 2024 – 24 January 2025

Information about the assessment can be found under 'tests' in the OSIRIS course catalogue for each course. Per course, you can see which assessment methods will be used and how each component has been weighted.

It is important to know that when you register for a course, you are automatically registered for the first test options of that course.

There is a maximum of 5 places for this module. If there are more interested students, students will be placed in the order of application in OSIRIS.

You can hand in the learning agreement until 1 October 2024.