Renewable Energy Education at The Universities

As the environmental problems caused by the increased utilization of fossil fuels are becoming more severe and to meet the increasing demand for energy, alternatives clean energy resources need to be explored along with conserving existing resources. Consciousness of importance of renewable energy and its possibilities to be exploited and developed should be socialized and introduced. It can be done through the formal education.

The poor dissemination of renewable energy technologies may be attributed to several factors. One of the important inhabiting factors is the lack of a structured framework for providing energy education, in general, renewable energy education, in particular. For example, in many countries, the lack of indigenous technology development capability in the area of new and renewable sources of energy has often resulted in the promotion of very expensive and inappropriate designs. Similarly, in some other places, owing to the unavailability of local technical manpower for proper repair and maintenance of the initially installed systems, the user have decided to use some other energy resource-technology combination. Some of the renewable energy technologies were not accepted by the end users as they were unaware of their potential benefits and associated requirements

Studies indicate that renewable energy related education is an area in which very little has been done, not only in developing countries but also in developed countries. This absence of any ambitious educational program results mainly from two factors: the breadth and interdisciplinary nature of the subject, and the lack of recognition that renewable energy will be great importance in the decades to come . However now days, especially in industrial countries, there have been many universities offering such programs on renewable energy or related.

In my home country recently reported: there were 76 state-run and 1,228 private universities in Indonesia with approximately 1,500,000 students and 8,500,000 students respectively. So far there is no such an entire renewable course in undergraduate level curriculum at any university programs. However a course on any individual subject of renewable energy mainly solar energy conversion (thermal) has been designed as an optional course at department of mechanical engineering, and a course on solar electricity at department of physics and electrical engineering.  And the courses are taught based on the technology aspects other than as an alternative energy source and its importance.