Summer Workshop 2011 | Center for Sustainable Energy and Power Systems

Denmark-California Renewable Energy Summer Program LoCal-Re 2011

The workshop was held August 1-19, 2011.

Workshop Description

The California - Denmark Summer Workshop takes place annually in California and Denmark alternately, with the 2011 edition being organized in California at the University of California partner universities.

The Summer Workshop is four weeks long with the first week being an online course. The 3-week program in California consists of classroom lectures, seminars and field trips to relevant energy sites and facilities all around Northern California. These visits intend to provide students with real-world experiences of the technological and social aspects of RE implementation at a local level. The faculty consists of Californian and Danish professors, as well as, external professionals and researchers with proven experience in their own field.

Here is the brochure.

In addition to lectures and visits, participants will develop a problem-oriented research project, which represents a fundamental part of the overall learning experience. Upon conclusion of the program, a final written report and presentation is completed by student teams, including analyses of the identified problem, possible solutions, and suggested recommendations.

The highlights from the 2010 Denmark - California Summer Workshop are available on the following website, http://pire.soe.ucsc.edu/

The workshop was held for four weeks: July 26, - August 27, 2010. The first week was an online course; the following three weeks were on-site in Denmark. The course included full time course work combined with classroom lectures and seminars as well as field trips to relevant renewable energy installation sites and facilities in the region. Participants were expected to develop a problem-oriented research project that is completed as a group project. A final report was produced by the student groups and will include analysis of the identified problem, possible solutions, and suggested recommendations. Students received credit for a seven-unit upper division course (EE181J Practical Renewable Energies) at UCSC.

CenSEPS creates a teaching environment that produces the next generation workforce for the Silicon Valley, the Monterey Bay region, the state of California and the nation. This proving ground for new educational approaches and curricula include inter-segmental models, laboratory training and internships. The Center is the focal point of curricula in sustainable energy technology, electric power systems, power electronics, resource planning and biological energy generation.

CenSEPS will sponsor the California-Denmark Summer School in Renewable Energy, started in 2008. This is at-present a bi-national program which admits students from California and Denmark. It is held in alternate years in California and Denmark. The program consists of lectures by California and Danish professors, field trips to renewable energy enterprises, talks by venture capitalists, and team-based conceptual design projects aimed at tackling critical problems in renewable energy implementation. The students come from technical backgrounds as well as from the social, political and economic sciences in order to bring home the point that for technical solutions to work, they must eventually be implemented and accepted by society.

CenSEPS also supports the development of “outreach kits” to the schools to teach basic concepts about sustainable energy and power.