Course syllabus
Course-PM
SEE161 Energy transitions lp1 HT24 (7.5 hp)
Course is offered by the department of Space, Earth and Environment
Contact details
Names and contact details of all teaching and administrative staff for this course are available here: Course staff - names and contact details.
Course purpose
The course aims to improve students’ understanding of change and continuity in energy systems and equip students with the state-of-the art tools to understand, measure and evaluate the pace of change of energy transitions to a more sustainable society. The focus is on learning to analyze energy transitions from different perspectives and using different types of evidence to assess the feasibility of accelerating transitions. A specific emphasis is placed on methods for evaluating new technologies at different levels of development – from pre-commercial (e.g. hydrogen) to the pilot phase (e.g. CCS) to already growing (e.g. solar and wind).
Schedule
You can find the schedule on the course homepage here in Canvas, as well as on TimeEdit.
Course literature
Students do not need to purchase a course book. All literature is publicly available. We will add the complete reading list for the course, including the full reference to each article/resource, here, closer to the course start. See also the schedule for the timing of reading and how each reading relates to the lectures and the exercises.
Course content
In this course, students learn how to use different types of empirical evidence to evaluate historical and ongoing energy transitions to better understand the output of mathematical future-oriented projections.
The course covers three major themes: the first is how to describe and analyze energy transitions from different perspectives (techno-economic, socio-technical, political). Under this theme, students learn how the main disciplines dealing with energy transitions explain change and continuity in energy systems.
In the second theme, students learn how to identify causal similarity between different changes in energy systems. Many of the changes in energy systems needed to meet climate change are unprecedented in their pace and scale and involve deploying technologies which are not yet commercial. Here, students learn the principles for identifying appropriate analogies and develop the skills to characterize the difference between relevant analogies and the target change.
Finally, in the third theme, students learn how to measure energy transitions and technological change. Here, students are introduced to different models of S-curves and their parameters. Students learn the strengths and weaknesses of different metrics for measuring the speed of energy transitions and how to apply these metrics to measure the pace of the energy transition and compare this speed to the change needed to reach climate and energy targets.
Course design
The course includes: interactive lectures delivered by the examiner, TAs and invited speakers, readings, three exercises, a group project including report and presentation, and a take-home exam.
The lectures and readings introduce students to tools and methods for assessing future energy transitions.
The three exercises give students hands-on experience with key methods in understanding and evaluating energy transitions. For each exercise, an interactive consultation session will be organized where students receive overarching feedback and can ask questions.
In the group project students apply their knowledge to assess the pace and dynamics of a specific transition case as well as its potential for acceleration.
The work-load is estimated to be 80 hours for the group project per student and 10-20 hours per student for the exercises. The rest of the time is allocated to lectures, reading and examination.
All relevant information (TimeTable, Readings, Assignment Deadlines) will be shared via Canvas. If students have questions regarding the administrative aspects of the course, they should reach out to lolan@chalmers.se. If students have specific questions related to the content of individual exercises, they should reach out to the facilitator of each exercise, which they can find under Course staff - names and contact details.
Changes made since the last occasion
- Several lectures were slightly amended, or newly added to the course: there is now a lecture on "Governing energy transitions", as well as a lecture on "Approaches for projecting energy transitions".
- The first exercise was amended from last year's course to focus on phases of transitions rather than on three perspectives. The previous "Three perspectives"-exercise will now be conducted as an in-class exercise.
- The reading list was updated, mainly to include recently published literature (e.g. Kazlou et al 2024), as well as add literature that is relevant to the newly added lectures on policies, targets and plans for transitions.
Learning objectives and syllabus
Learning objectives:
- analyse energy transitions from techno-economic, socio-technical and political perspectives using the key variables appropriate for each discipline;
- describe and map the causal similarity of energy transitions across multiple perspectives (techno-economic, socio-technical and political);
- diagnose different phases of energy transitions and measure their speed using a method appropriate for the level of development of a specific technology and different types of data on energy transitions
- articulate the strengths and weaknesses of different metrics for measuring the speed of energy transitions
- apply principles for identifying analogies (context, sectoral, technological) and use different types of evidence to evaluate the feasibility of current or planned transitions
- understand the challenge of projecting transitions and the limitations of different types of projections and be able to relate empirical observations to long-term modelling outputs and policy targets
- be able to communicate to policy audiences about the challenges and opportunities associated with energy transitions
Link to the syllabus on Studieportalen.
Examination form
The requirements to pass the course are:
- passed exercises and project (4.5 hec);
- passed take-home exam (3 hec).
The grading for the whole course is: 3, 4 or 5 and is based on the performance in both these parts.
It is strongly recommended to read the literature for the course and participate in the lectures to be able to pass the course.
Grades are assigned based on the individual grade for the take-home exam, plus any bonus points from the project and exercises (see below).
Bonus points can be earned through the assessment of exercises, and the group project. The bonus points will be added to the points received at the exam, which can result in a higher grade. However, the bonus points cannot be used to pass the exam. The bonus points can only be used during the ordinary exam and the two following re-exams.
- Each exercise can earn 0-2 bonus points depending on how well the exercise meets the aims and objectives. Grade 3 = 0 bonus points, Grade 4 = 1 bonus point, Grade 5 = 2 bonus points.
- Each project can earn 0-4 bonus points depending on how well the project meets the aims and objectives (see more information in the course PM). The student presentations and the report is used for evaluation. Grade 3=0 bonus points, Grade 4=2 bonus points, Grade 5=4 bonus points.
The exercise and projects must be submitted by 17:00 on the due date. If a group submits their exercise or project after this time, those individuals will accrue minus one bonus point for each day of delay which will be deducted from any bonus points accrued in the project.
Course summary:
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