Energy Resources

The course will cover energy resources and their role in modern society, with both national and global perspectives. The present and future impacts of nuclear and fossil fuels on the environment will be explored. Energy technologies and use of solar, wind, hydro and biomass energy resources will be introduced, and the relationship between public policy and resource usage will be discussed.

At the end of the course, the student should be able to recall the relative energy content per mass of various fuels, and the relative energy efficiency of the most common heat engines.

After completion of this course, the student should be able to:

• Describe the most important energy sources in use today in Norway and worldwide, including the sources, extraction, transport and use of these resources.
• Calculate the energy content of various energy resources, and compare the values available from different sources.
• Compare the environmental impacts of the use of different energy sources.
• Evaluate the merits of one source versus another in a given set of circumstances, and the possible implications of energy legislation.
• Explain and apply the concepts of conductivity, efficiency, potential and kinetic energy as they apply to energy use, and explain the function of heat engines, heat pumps, solar cells and water and wind turbines.
• Explain the relationship between absorption, emission and the greenhouse effect.
• Explain and employ the computer models used for characterizing population growth and resource usage.

Lectures, presentations and exercises. Sufficient exercises, along with one short presentation must be approved to gain admission to the exam. The student's expected workload in the course is 225 hours.