SEAD 510: Energy Analysis
4 Credits
Fall 2019, CRN 27032
Instructor: Jeffrey Bergthorson
Scheduled: to be confirmed.
Background: Society is at a crossroads; progress requires increasing access to and consumption of energy resources. Wood, fossil fuels, hydro and, more recently nuclear, wind and solar power have enabled the industrialization of high and middle income economies. Yet, the affordability of modern energy resources remains a barrier to progress in low income countries. At the same time, climate change mitigation requires a transition from fossil to low-carbon fuels. As the engineers, urban planners and architects of a sustainable society, you need to possess a robust understanding of energy flows and be able to address, in an informed way, energy production and consumption solutions. This course will provide foundational knowledge of energy metrics – including energy and power densities, life cycle assessments and energy returned on invested - , or energy literacy, and explore issues related to energy production and use, including their environmental and economic impacts. The course will explore alternative solutions for primary power generation, methods to store energy in a clean secondary form, and then systems to generate secondary power from clean energy carriers.
Learning Outcomes: At the end of this course, students will understand the following concepts and will be able to apply them to real world problems:
- Energy: now and in future
- Energy metrics
- Alternative Primary Power-Generation Systems
- Alternative Energy-Storage and Secondary Power-Generation
- Critical Analysis and Application of Theory
Prerequisites and restrictions: No prerequisite courses are required. Undergraduates in chemical engineering are NOT eligible for SEAD 510. Only U3 or U4 undergraduate students in the Faculty of Engineering (in all departments and schools except chemical engineering) are eligible. Graduate students in any school or department in the Faculty of Engineering are eligible. Approval from TISED and the student's department or supervisor is required (see details below) for all students except mechanical engineering undergraduate students. Note that TISED does not advise students on if/how this course is to be counted in their program requirements; this must be determined by the student’s department.
How to register for SEAD 510:
1. All students who wish to register for this course must fill out the form below (you must be logged in to access the form) to obtain approval from TISED.
2. In addition, students must obtain approval from their department or supervisor.
a) Undergraduate students must be in U3 or U4 and must provide a completed course authorization form (www.mcgill.ca/engineering/files/engineering/request_for_course_authorization.pdf ) with a signature from their departmental supervisor. Completed forms should be scanned and sent to tised [at] mcgill.ca (TISED) (Tised [at] mcgill.ca) or dropped off to our office in person (MD 270). Note that this step is not required for mechanical engineering undergraduate students.
b) Graduate students must have their supervisor or department send an email of approval to tised [at] mcgill.ca (subject: Approval%20for%20SEAD%20course) (TISED) (TISED [at] McGill.ca).
3. Once you have submitted the form below and we received approval from your department or supervisor, we will contact you to let you know that the course SEAD 510 has been opened for you on Minerva. You will then need to log into Minerva and register for the course yourself.