Environmental Impacts of Energy Systems

This course gives you, as a student of civil engineering in energy systems, knowledge of the environmental impacts the energy system has, and how you as a civil engineer can contribute to creating sustainable energy systems. Theory is interspersed with projects where you assess energy solutions from an environmental perspective. The energy solutions of the future are a topical subject that is discussed daily in the media. Future energy systems must have low emissions, especially of greenhouse gases, but without threatening biological diversity by demanding large areas of land. In addition, they should be both stable and flexible, so that energy is always available when we need it. The old energy solutions based on fossil fuels present major environmental problems and the transition to a new, more sustainable energy system presents challenges that it is important to be aware of. During the course, we go through old and new environmental problems from an energy perspective and link them to both Swedish environmental goals and global goals. We believe that equipped with knowledge of the details and the underlying causes, you will be able to propose good solutions as qualified civil engineers. Lectures are interspersed with debate, statistical exercises and a longer report where you independently develop a sustainable energy solution for an entire country and calculate and discuss what environmental improvements it will result in.