2018-2019 Undergraduate Course Catalog 
    
    Mar 29, 2024  
2018-2019 Undergraduate Course Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Renewable Energy - ESF Minor


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. This minor is available to SU students as well as ESF students. 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 understanding and development of renewable energy requires expertise from a wide range of disciplines. This minor will be interdisciplinary in nature with instructors from different disciplines teaching the core courses. The Renewable Energy minor is available to all ESF and SU undergraduate students (except students who are in the Renewable Energy option in Environmental Science) who have a GPA of 2.75 or better by the end of their sophomore year, and with permission of the Environmental Science Curriculum Director (358 Illick Hall). The minor will require a minimum of 18 credits, 15 of which are required courses. The remaining 3 credits can be selected from the list of suggested courses.

Specified courses:


  • EFB 120 - Global Environment
  • SRE 325 - Energy Systems
  • SRE 335 - Renewable Energy Systems (EFB 120 is a pre-req)
  • SRE 422 - Energy Markets and Regulation
  • SRE 450 - Renewable Energy Capstone Planning
  • ESC 460 - Renewable Energy Capstone Seminar

And a minimum of three credits from the following list of suggested courses:


  • BPE 441 - Biomass Energy
  • EFB 516 - Ecosystems
  • EFB 518 - Systems Ecology
  • ERE 351 - Basic Engineering Thermodynamics
  • ERE 519 - Green Entrepreneurship
  • FCH 360 - Physical Chemistry I
  • FCH 571 - Wood Chemistry I: General Wood Chemistry
  • FOR 415 - Forestry Consulting and Wood Procurement
  • PSE 361 - Engineering Thermodynamics
  • PSE 370 - Principles of Mass and Energy Balance