Welcome to "GEG2UL-Renewable Power Generation" at Dalarna University

Why?

This is a course in the third year of the Bachelor program in Energy Technology. In the previous courses students have built up solid knowledge on the fundamentals of thermal and electrical engineering. In this course, students will get a deeper understanding how various renewable technologies work and how to plan and design Renewable Power systems. The three major technologies covered in this course are: Photovoltaics, Wind Power and Hydropower where most attention is on Photovoltaics and Wind Power. This course is on specific technologies that already today play an import role for a sustainable and climate friendly global energy system, and will be the base for most of power generation in future. Learning how these systems work and how do design and plan renewable power generation systems will give students the right competence to work in the fast growing renewable energy sector in Sweden and all over the world. The course gives also a good opportunity to continue studying Solar Energy Engineering at Dalarna Universities Master programs, where students get prepare for leading engineering positions in the solar industry and/or an academic career in teaching and research.

What?

The learning objective for this course are as follows. After the completion of the course students should be able to:

• explain essential concepts and technologies for power generation based on commonly available renewable energy sources
• demonstrate understanding of the relationship between properties of processes, media and technical systems, and evaluate the resulting energetic and environmental characteristics and suitability for practical application
• analyse, solve and evaluate the results of realistic quantitative problems concerning renewable power generation using scientifically‐based mathematical models.
• carry out a well‐defined project task related to part of system or micro‐system for renewable power generation, draw reasonable conclusions from the results obtained and present these in writing with reference to the original problem

Most focus will be on two technologies, Photovoltaics and Wind Power, as these are the ones that are growing fastest and give good job opportunities in the industry. The learning outcomes will be assessed in a written exam but also in lab exercises, seminars and a design project.

How?

Learning activities:

The theoretical part of the course which is mainly on the various technologies is taught in form of lectures accompanied with exercises. Lectures will also be provided on the principles of system design and planning. For both wind power and photovoltaic system design, students will then train system design and planning by real cases using professional industrial design tools. This work is done in groups and students can decide which of the two project cases will be their main project. For the main project the students do also (beside of the design and planning work) a study of related research publications and do an economical evaluation of their project. Beside lectures and project work also one lab on Photovoltaics and a seminar on Hydropower will be part of the course. For the seminar, students need to study the state of the art on a number of Hydropower related aspects. If possible, also a study visit to some renewable energy plants is included. Usually, we invite also some guest lectures with specific expertise on Wind and Hydro power to provide a few lectures.

Assessment:

The course has the Swedish grading scale U, 3, 4, 5. There will be one written exam on Photovoltaics and wind power giving 3 cr. Another 3cr are awarded for the two design projects with a grading scale of U‐G‐VG. The remaining 1.5cr are awarded for the PV lab and the self‐study assignment on Hydro Power. Also, here the grading scale is U‐G‐VG.

Hand‐ins are submitted through the course platform Canvas. Deadlines are strictly handled. Late submissions or resubmission will not be accepted. Unmotivated late hand‐ins will be examined at the next course occasion.

Course evaluation:

Our ambition is always to provide a high‐class education to our students. We permanently develop and improve our courses. One of the most essential input for this work comes from the students. So your feedback is very important for us and we encourage you to share your comments and suggestions with us. In this course, you will get by the end of the course an evaluation form that we ask you to fill. We are also very happy for any other feedback during the course, in the classroom, by email or any other form. Any feedback is systematically analyzed and conclusions and actions are described in the teacher’s course evaluation, which we share with the students in the course room.

	Course Syllabus			Contact information
	Reading List			Pei Huang Course Coordinator, Hydropower phn@du.se
				Frank Fiedler Teacher, Examiner ffi@du.se