Study plan - Master in Sustainable Energy Technology

The transition to a more energy efficient, zero-emission society calls for a more secure and affordable access to renewable energy. The master’s program in Sustainable Energy Technology is educating engineers with in-depth knowledge and skills concerning the development of sustainable and climate friendly solutions for harvesting, converting and storage of energy. The evaluation and determination of economical sustainability is a vital part of this.The study program is taught in Bergen, on the western coast of Norway, where there are many possibilities for harvesting energy both on- and offshore. In this context, the necessity for climate friendly energy is relevant and required in all sectors, particularly in manufacturing and the shipping industry.

Learning outcomes

After completing the study program, the candidate has achieved the following Learning Outcomes, defined under Knowledge, Skills, and General Competence.

Knowledge

The candidate

• has advanced knowledge of materials for and designs of energy systems.
• has detailed knowledge of energy sources, technology for harvesting and conversion of energy, and various energy carriers with focus on energy efficiency and sustainable use of energy.
• has in-depth knowledge within a selection of the study program’s elective courses.
• can analyse central challenges and opportunities within the special field, with appropriate methods and propose sustainable economical and technical solutions.
• can apply and transfer knowledge to new topics and problems within the discipline, which provides a foundation for continuous renewal and expansion of competence within sustainable energy technology.

Skills

The candidate

• can analyse problems and perform advanced calculations, measurements and analysis related to energy systems and carriers.
• can maintain a critical perspective towards data from measurements and simulations, evaluate precision and accuracy and draw own conclusions based on assessment of setup and results.
• can analyse relevant theories, methods, and interpretations within the fields of energy and sustainability.
• can independently apply appropriate methods for research and professional development of practical and theoretical case studies within sustainable energy technology.
• can complete a defined research project on a topic related to sustainable energy technology, both independently and with supervision, in a reflected way and which satisfies fundamental research ethical norms.

General competence

The candidate

• can analyse environmental, social, and economic consequences of products and solutions within the special field from a life cycle perspective
• can apply relevant and discipline-specific terms and concepts for the communication of their own work and assessments
• can analyse cases and transfer knowledge and skills to new problems and challenges within energy and sustainability, whilst showing respect for ethics, openness, and reliability within their own work
• can discuss and disseminate results and knowledge about sustainable energy technologies and can contribute to increasing the visibility of a technology’s impact and consequences to various target audiences, both written and orally, in English
• can work independently and in interdisciplinary groups, as well as reflect on own academic conduct.
• has technical foundation for active participation in innovation and innovative processes, based on in-depth knowledge and skills in sustainable energy technology.

Content

The master’s program puts a focus on the knowledge of energy systems seen in and from a sustainability perspective. The students will be introduced to and learn about relevant tools, methods, simulations and experiments as well as project and report requirements.

The first semester sets the foundation of the program, and the students will get an introduction to sustainability assessments, energy economy, different forms of energy as well as the technologies related to harvest, use and storage of energy. The course in scientific theory and methods provides

insight into various scientific methods for a critical approach to literature, making analyses and carrying out simple research or solutions for the master thesis.

In the second semester, we are connecting design of energy systems to sustainability assessments. In this course the students will design their own energy systems and complete a sustainability assessment of a design project.

The master thesis must be based on relevant challenges from society, industry or research- and development work. The thesis can be a cooperation with a business or a government agency, or it can be a part of HVL’s own research and development. Students choose between writing a 30-credits thesis or a 50-credits thesis. The standard study plan is writing and delivering a 30- credit thesis in the fourth semester.

Choosing a 50-credit thesis gives you the opportunity to work with a topic or project that is more time consuming, either because of a long data-collection period, or the construction of a larger experiment. If you choose to write a thesis with 50 credits, 20 of these credits will be set to the third semester, and you finish the thesis in the fourth semester.

The semester previous to working on the master thesis, all students have to take and pass the course guided self-study (10 credits). The aim of the course is to prepare for the planned master thesis, for example by getting to know a certain tool or method or a literature review in a wider topical area the master thesis is located in.

At the start of the first semester there will be a joint meeting with all the students of the program, followed by individual guidance. This is to create an individual study plan for each student. You choose your elective courses in agreement with an academic supervisor to ensure that the specialization is coherent with the master’s thesis.

The elective courses in the 2nd and 3rd semester can roughly be divided into two areas. One is generally related to energy systems, the components and structure of these systems, as well as the associated energy carriers. The following courses can be included in this category biofuels and electrofuels, waste heat recovery, electrochemistry for batteries and fuel cells, marine propulsion systems and theoretical and numerical combustion. The second category is ocean energy with topics such as numerical methods in hydrodynamics, offshore wind engineering and marine technical analyses. Some of the subjects can be included in both categories, for example hydrogen technology, materials for energy technology and CFD for energy technology. Techno-economic analyses are included in the learning outcomes in several of these courses.

A maximum of 15 credits Some of the elective courses are at a bachelor’s-level. You are allowed a maximum of 15 credits at bachelors’-level in the master’s program.

Practice

There is no compulsory practical placement.

There will sometimes be an opportunity to be working with and in industrial or institutional partners in correlation the master thesis (or course-related and specific projects).

Teaching

The following teaching methods are used in this study program:

• Lectures
• Self-study
• Calculation and computer exercises
• Laboratory practice
• Guidance (individually and in groups)
• Projects (individually and in groups)
• Group work
• Discussion

… and require a lot of student engagement in all courses / learning activities.

The course Guided self-study and the master thesis are large individual assignments, but there are also a lot of projects in the other courses. The laboratory-practice and parts of the project assignments give the students practical experience with components of energy systems. Through computer exercises, the students gain experience using relevant software and programming, while students specialize and gain knowledge from lectures and calculations exercises.

Assessment

The following forms of assessment are used in this study program:

• School exams
• Home exams
• Assignments
• Portfolio
• Project reports
• Oral exams
• Adjusting oral exams in connection with a previously submitted exam work

Most of the courses have combined forms of assessment, with a project and then a written or oral exam. A few courses use a portfolio assessment, where you have several assignments throughout the semester that get graded as one assessment. The master thesis is an individual assessment, but group assignments are part of the assessment in many courses.

Internationalization

It is possible to study at a foreign partner institution during this master’s program (typically in the 2nd autumn term). It is possible to write the master thesis as part of an international exchange period.