Courses & Curriculum

Dartmouth's Master of Energy Transition (MET) curriculum is grounded in interdisciplinary learning, with a consistent emphasis on the energy transition's impact on social systems and community well-being, locally and globally.

Cong Chen speaks in front of a classroom. — MET faculty member Cong Chen, Assistant Professor of Engineering, teaches Data Analytics for Energy and Climate (ENTR 140).

Cultivating a Community of Energy Leaders

Dartmouth's non-thesis, professional Master of Energy Transition (MET) program prepares you to make an immediate impact in the clean energy transition. With in-person courses on Dartmouth's scenic campus, you'll benefit from meaningful connections with instructors, fellow students, guest speakers, and industry and nonprofit partners, all in a collaborative academic setting.

"Our energy systems are the backbone of modern life, and they are under extreme pressure to transform. The challenges this creates do not respect borders of any kind — disciplinary, national, or geographic. It has been a dream to build a program that is laser-focused on increasing society's capacity to not just address these challenges, but to use them as an opportunity to build a better world."
— Amanda Graham, PhD, Director of Academic Programs & the MET

Technology of Energy Systems

Fall Term | ENTR 110: Technology of Current & 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 & 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.

Business and Economics of Energy

Fall Term | ENTR 120: Team Dynamics & 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 & 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 & 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.

Science, Policy, and Impact of Energy

Fall Term | ENTR 130: Climate Science & 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 & 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 & 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.

Project-Based Courses

A group of graduate students sit at tables and face the front of the room, listening.

Experiential learning is a cornerstone of the MET curriculum. Throughout the program, you'll encounter real-world scenarios in projects of varying scales. In some, you’ll partner with cross-sector organizations committed to decarbonization and sustainability. In all three thematic areas of the curriculum, you will wrestle with the complexity of transforming energy systems large and small—equipping you with skills and insights to directly implement in your career.

Cross-sector Communication Skills

Four people in professional attire talk with each other.

Even as AI and technical advances transform the workforce, the skills that set professionals apart remain distinctly human: the capacity to work in teams, communicate across differences, and translate complex ideas into meaningful action. This is especially true in the energy sector, where every challenge sits at the intersection of multiple fields.

Through our interdisciplinary curriculum, MET students gain fluency in speaking the languages of technology, finance, and policy. We go beyond concepts and theory, anchoring lessons in real-world projects and networking opportunities—because the best way to learn a new language is to speak it in practice.

Alongside this fluency, you'll build core professional communication skills and develop your professional persona: practicing presentations, sharpening your interview technique, and learning what it takes to adapt your leadership and work styles in dynamic workplace environments.

A Focus on Community Impact

The MET program emphasizes equity and justice in how the energy transition affects social systems and communities, locally and globally. Because it's not just about the technology—decarbonization will only succeed if it's affordable, accessible, and fair, and if the people affected by it have a voice in shaping it.

A small group walks through the woods. — In the Community & Global Resilience in Energy Transitions (ENTR 190) course, MET students visit a local trail system to explore how regulation and land-use decisions shape energy systems and climate resilience on the ground.

“The MET program reaffirmed that collaboration is key and people are key in the energy transition. Going into our careers, we will have to listen to all voices, loud and quiet, and incorporate those in a meaningful and respectful way to our solutions. People are the center of the energy issue and as long as we incorporate other people's perspectives in an equitable way, we will create energy outcomes that also promote societal good.”
— Jordan Schisler, GR'26

Studying at the Irving Institute

Situated between the Thayer School of Engineering and Tuck School of Business, with a direct view of the iconic Baker-Berry Library, the Institute serves as a hub of innovation, research, and collaboration.

Our award-winning certified LEED Platinum facility was named 2024 Building of the Year by the New Hampshire Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The building was also awarded the prestigious American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on the Environment (COTE) 2025 Top Ten Award, recognizing sustainable design excellence.

Inside, you'll find flexible classrooms, collaborative project spaces, and the inviting Fern Coffee and Tea Bar, ideal for a break between classes. MET students also have exclusive access to the Sandra L. Irving 1972a Commons, a full kitchen where they can store and prepare meals and drinks. Downstairs, a dedicated MET Lounge offers students their own space to relax and recharge.

“Throughout the program, I worked on projects exploring affordable housing decarbonization, energy resilience in rural coastal communities across Maine, battery energy storage deployment, grid modernization, energy systems modeling, climate and energy data analytics, and campus decarbonization strategies. These experiences strengthened my understanding of how energy systems, policy, infrastructure, economics, and communities intersect, and reinforced my passion for developing solutions that are both technically effective and socially equitable.”

Rebecca Middlen GR'26

Program-Level Competencies

Describe and analyze major dimensions of energy systems and transitions, including technological, business and financial, policy, and social dimensions.
Develop and apply analytical frameworks and problem-solving skills to creatively address specific and systemic energy transition challenges.
Contribute to, build, and lead multidisciplinary teams and partner effectively with diverse stakeholders.
Assess the distribution of benefits and burdens in specific energy system contexts and propose actions that accelerate an affordable, reliable, equitable clean energy transition for all.
Build skills necessary to thrive in current and future careers in the rapidly changing energy & climate industry.

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Talk with our knowledgeable admissions manager about your goals, and get answers to your questions about MET courses, faculty, mentorship, and how to apply.

Madeleine Bothe, MET Recruitment and Admissions Manager

Two easy ways to connect:

Send an email: energy.transition@dartmouth.edu

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The Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy & Society