MES Curriculum Guide
Purpose
This guide has been put together to help prospective graduate students focused/interested in Macro-Energy Systems (MES) equip themselves with the foundational tools and knowledge to be successful in their study or work in MES.
This is a resource to help determine what knowledge gaps you might have and the types of courses you should seek out, online or in your tertiary institution, to help fill in those gaps. Various institutions offer various classes with different titles. What is presented in the Guide are not specific course titles or numbers, but more of an indicator of the types of courses for which a student should watch out for. The purpose is that a student can use this guide, alongside the course descriptions at their institution(s), to help determine which MES-relevant courses they may want to take during their degree programs.
How it was Developed
We surveyed professors and academics within the MES Community on the courses and topics they would suggest for curious students. We condensed this information into subject areas to help students zero-in on their interests and knowledge gaps.
For each subject, there are suggested ‘core’ courses (recommended for all) and ‘elective’ courses which may be taken as part of a specialization, concentration, or audited. These designations are merely suggestions; it is difficult to designate specific courses areas as ‘core’ or ‘elective’ as it depends on the student’s goals, areas of interest, and availability at their university. For this reason, we try to outline why the knowledge of each subject is useful, as to enable students to think about what might be important for their personal interests. Remember, MES is a gathering place for people with broad and diverse interests and expertise. As such, there is not one single proper curriculum for MES, diversity is at the core to the community.
This Guide is not comprehensive. If you see areas or subjects that should be added, please contact us so we can keep this information relevant and up-to-date!
Subject List Overview
Economics
Relevant Courses/Concepts to learn
Intro Microeconomics (Core)
Intro Macroeconomics (Elective)
Game Theory (Elective)
Econometrics (Elective)
Public economics (Elective)
Energy/environmental/resource economics (Core)
Industrial economics (Elective)
Regulatory economics (Elective)
Market Design (audit)
Finance (audit)
Why is this knowledge useful?
A significant portion of decision-making related to energy is driven by economics. So it is important to have the tools that connect decisions in energy systems with the economy.
These courses provide foundational economic theory and knowledge of incentives in firms, regulation, market failures, and policy interventions.
Political Economy/Political Science
Relevant Courses/Concepts to learn
Energy/Environmental Law (audit)
Case Study methods (audit)
Political Theory (audit)
Why is this knowledge useful?
Understanding interests of political actors and how they shape government policy processes. This includes subjects in political economy, governments, public choice theory, and methods of policy analysis. Familiarity with these topics helps to address real world decision making, as opposed to idealized assumptions made in models
Policy Analysis and Formulation
Relevant Courses/Concepts to learn
Methods for policy analysis and principles of policy design
Introduction to policy analysis
Energy technology and policy
Why is this knowledge useful?
It is useful to have an understanding of how to assess and design policies for effectiveness, efficiency, and political feasibility/durability. Policy will drive large scale changes in energy systems, and its important to understand the role of policy in shaping large scale energy system
Environmental Science
Foundational Knowledge / Key Courses
Understanding of environmental impacts of energy systems. Energy fundamentals, climate, pollution (Elective/Specialization)
Climate change/science
Environmental science
Intro to environmental science, (Core)
Energy and Resources
Climate modelling
Why is this knowledge useful?
Helps us understand the broader environmental impacts associated with energy system design. The scientific aspect of energy calculations, climate, and the environments
Energy Technologies / Engineering
Foundational Knowledge / Key Courses
A course on energy engineering, with the goal of learning the foundational aspect of energy. For example, how a conventional power plant works, how wind and solar produce electricity, how a conventional vs electric vehicle move, etc.
The idea is to understand, broadly, how these technologies function
Why is this knowledge useful?
Having a basic knowledge of energy engineering plays a big role in understanding how the energy system works physically. This knowledge is important when thinking about the economics, the modelling, and even feasibility of Macro-Energy Systems projects.
Renewable Technologies
Foundational Knowledge / Key Courses
Knowledge of the physics and engineering of renewable energy technologies (this should be broader than just renewable technologies, but all energy technologies, including consuming, transporting, converting and producing energy forms/services)
Solar energy conversion
Physics of energy
Electric power systems engineering
Energy Technology and policy
Why is this knowledge useful?
Need to understand physical and engineering constraints and considerations in energy systems and how individual technologies function.
Renewables will definitely be a large part of a low carbon future, and it is important to understand their benefits and limitations.
Calculate how new energy concepts would work; capacity, efficiency potential
Energy Systems Modelling / Quantitative Methods
Foundational Knowledge / Key Courses
Mathematical methods for modelling and evaluating energy systems including empirical methods for statistical and causal inference; social science methods
Modelling methods
Optimization methods (core)
Linear programming (core)
Mixed integer linear programming
Nonlinear optimization (elective)
Nonlinear programming
Agent-based modeling
Simulation methods
Power sector planning
Electricity Markets
Decision analysis (elective)
Optimization under uncertainty (elective)
Why is this knowledge useful?
Systems modelling allows us to probe the future decision space using a self-consistent representation of the energy system under evaluation.
At least 2-3 courses in this area (perhaps a sequence)
Important and widely used methods for statistical and causal inference and quantitative social science research that can be applied to some macro-energy systems research questions.
Empirical quantitative methods
Probability & Statistics (Core)
Econometrics;
Statistical inference
Causal inference
Equity & Social Justice
Foundational Knowledge / Key Courses
Understand the ethical, equity, and distributional impacts of energy systems transitions. These courses could be audited or done as a specialization.
Environmental justice;
Environmental philosophy/ethics;
Political philosophy;
Civil rights;
Ethics
Ethnography
Why is this knowledge useful?
Important policy design and system design considerations and thinking.
We need to do a much better job evaluating the impacts of large scale changes associated with climate change mitigation beyond cost and emissions -- the transition will have a profound impact on people’s lives
Psychology/Human Behaviour
Foundational Knowledge / Key Courses
Understanding of human motivations, cognition, behavior
Behavioral Psychology (Specialization)
Social Psychology
Why is this knowledge useful?
Humans are part of energy systems! Good to know how they tick. Need to understand how people make decisions in order to evaluate the uptake of new technologies.
Programming Skills
Foundational Knowledge / Key Courses
Central methods for modeling and good software design/development/maintenance. At least an introductory programming class and level of proficiency in some subset of MATLAB/GAMS/AMPL/Python/Julia etc
Software engineering;
introduction to scientific programming;
object oriented programming etc.
Data Structures
Logic in programming
Course in python/Julia/java (core)
Why is this knowledge useful?
Nearly everyone needs to know how to code! Especially if developing complex energy systems models or contributing to development of established tools.
Implementation of energy models and other forms of quantitative policy analysis often rely on strong programming skills.
Supports in modelling and analysis
High Performance Computing
Foundational Knowledge / Key Courses
How to use high performance computing clusters for computationally intensive modelling
Database Management (specialization)
Why is this knowledge useful?
Helpful when trying iterate large energy system models
Life Cycle Analysis (LCA)
Foundational Knowledge / Key Courses
Understanding supply chain and life cycle including the evaluation of environmental impacts in the LCA framework
Life Cycle analysis;
Industrial ecology
Engineering Analysis
This can be a specialization or core if used as primary method in lieu of energy systems modelling
Why is this knowledge useful?
Very useful methods for macro-energy systems analysis. LCA helps to quantify the broader environmental impacts associated with parts or the whole energy system.
Techno-economic Analysis
Foundational Knowledge / Key Courses
Understanding of techno-economic analysis methods
Techno-economic analysis
Why is this knowledge useful?
Core methods and thinking that underlie much other analysis
Design
Foundational Knowledge / Key Courses
The design process to solve complex problems
Human-centred design (specialization)
Why is this knowledge useful?
Core methods and thinking that underlie much other analysis. Design is a broad category; for example, attractive and functional building design with low energy consumption is an important piece of the macro-energy system. This knowledge helps provide a pathway to solve difficult problems while incorporating the human element of Macro Energy Systems.
Complexity & Complex Systems
Foundational Knowledge / Key Courses
Critical thinking skills on complex systems. The study of complex systems and their properties, dynamics, feedback, equilibrium, stability, chaos, networks etc.
Complex systems;
macro-energy systems engineering
Network science
Introduction to dynamical systems
Why is this knowledge useful?
Macro-energy systems are highly complex and interconnected, so some methodological grounding in complex systems is helpful.
This will help with connectivity and connections within and beyond MES.