Courses & Curriculum

Fall term | ENTR 110: Technology of Current and Future Energy Systems

• Course description: This course provides an overview of current and emerging technologies spanning the entire energy value chain—from generation to the grid edge. Students will explore a broad range of energy facilities and infrastructure, including traditional systems such as fossil fuels, nuclear power, and large-scale grids, while critically examining the ongoing transition to low-carbon and decentralized energy solutions. Topics include renewable energy integration (solar, wind, hydro, geothermal), smart grids, energy storage, electric vehicles, grid resilience, and next-generation clean energy technologies. Through real-world case studies, simulation exercises, and project-based learning, students will evaluate the trade-offs and system-level implications of various energy pathways. The course prepares students to make meaningful contributions to the development and deployment of resilient, efficient, and sustainable energy systems.
   

Winter term | ENTR 140: Data Analytics for Energy and Climate

• Course description: This course provides an introduction to the concepts and applications of data analytics for energy and climate. Topics include data collection and preparation, descriptive statistics, machine learning, optimization, and visualization.  The course will introduce the overall process of using data analytics to solve problems, leveraging real-world data related to energy and climate.  Students acquire a working knowledge of coding and analytics (Python or similar) with practical datasets related to electricity markets, power system operations, and climate.

Spring term | ENTR 170: Energy Systems Modeling

• Course description: This course introduces how to use and evaluate computational energy systems models to solve integrated technological, environmental, economic, cultural, and social problems. Foundational models of energy system operations, planning, investment, markets, technology adoption, and trade are introduced. Fundamental systems modeling topics are covered, including the treatment of uncertainty, spatial and temporal scaling, multi-sector dynamics, multi-stakeholder preferences, multiple objectives, and environmental and socioeconomic impacts (e.g., air quality, labor, land use, social equity). Existing, transforming, and emerging systems are explored, such as power, renewable, fossil fuel, hydrogen, carbon capture, transmission, industrial, residential, and transportation systems.

Fall term | ENTR 120: Team Dynamics and Professional Communications

• Course description: The evolving energy and climate workplace requires sophisticated professional skills.  This course will serve as a laboratory for honing those skills in order to successfully pursue and perform in a meaningful career in the energy transition.  Students will identify and apply core principles of teamwork, leadership, and communication, and will expand their ability to leverage skills in these areas to facilitate professional success.  The course will include workshops and mentorship in career self-assessment, ethics, and interpersonal and organizational communication.

Winter term | ENTR 150: Energy Markets and Economics

• Course description: This course provides the conceptual and applied foundation in energy economics necessary to engage with the market frameworks at work in multiple sectors of the energy economy.  Students will explore key aspects of energy supply and demand and assess the role of markets, regulation and deregulation in energy systems. The course addresses market design questions related to energy generation, transmission and distribution. It also provides an overview of economic institutions designed to control the impacts of energy infrastructure and examines market innovations that can advance energy policy goals and accelerate decarbonization.

Spring term | ENTR 180: Finance and Accounting for the Energy Transition

• Course description: The energy transition is a massive undertaking requiring trillions of dollars of investment.  This course will explore concepts from finance and accounting that are crucial to understanding the rationale for investment decision-making.  We will work with various methods for assessing the financial viability of energy and decarbonization projects and managing financial risks.  Critical topics that will be addressed include discounted cashflow modelling, financial & carbon accounting, investment risk analysis, & project financing.  We will also explore ongoing innovations that seek to establish the next generation of financial products, services, and institutions that can effectively serve the goals of the energy transition.  Students will develop both tactical and strategic skills to help them manage the financial aspects of energy projects, with the goal of becoming confident and conversant about the avenues available for securing commercial & concessional sources of funding.

Fall term | ENTR 130: Climate Science and the Energy Transition

• Course description: This course will build on the basic principles of climate science to explore drivers of present-day climate change, including greenhouse gasses, and their impacts on society and ecosystems. With an emphasis on project-based learning, students will examine the interactions of climate change and economic growth, and how these affect a society's ability to navigate the energy transition. Critical to evaluate will be the socioecological costs and benefits of climate mitigation measures over short (years to decades) to long (decades to a century) time horizons, and at local to regional to global scales.

Winter term | ENTR 160: Energy Law and Policy

• Course description: This course will address the evolving U.S. policy context for energy system management and transition. We will briefly review historical approaches to managing energy resources before focusing on recent and emerging governance models as well as regulatory challenges and incentives for the deployment of emerging energy technologies.  Throughout the course, we will examine the interplay between technological and social systems, including the key role of technology in both creating and mediating environmental impacts and the roles of policy and politics in shaping technology choices. We will use a diverse set of tools and methodologies to investigate the social and environmental implications of energy technology and policy choice. We will assess how these issues interact at multiple scales, particularly local, state, regional, and national, and review major global trends and their potential impact on U.S. energy law and policy.

Spring term | ENTR 190: Community and Global Resilience in Energy Transitions

• Course description: This course examines how energy systems and climate impacts reinforce longstanding social and economic inequities. Students will investigate who benefits and who is burdened, historically and today, across local and global contexts. Through a systems thinking lens, students will explore how natural and social systems are interconnected, interdependent, and shaped by dynamic feedback loops. Using this holistic approach, students will assess real-world case studies, identify leverage points for change, and analyze community-level climate and energy strategies from within and beyond the U.S. Emphasizing applied learning, students will engage in collaborative projects and comparative case analysis to develop actionable insights and equity-centered solutions. The course equips students with the systems literacy, effective engagement tools and techniques, and strategic frameworks needed for leadership in the energy transition and climate resilience field.