FMJ3387 Energy Technology and Sustainability 6.0 credits

• Defining the energy system. Global, regional, national, rural, urban, to technologies, fuels and key characteristics.
• Mapping energy systems to the SDGs. Direct, indirect impacts of and on other SDGs.
• Defining views of sustainable energy development
• Introducing Reference Resource to Service System (i.e. Mapping how resources are extracted, recycled and used to meet development needs)
• Describe selected KTH research areas and technology sustainable development challenges\
• Quantitatively define sustainable development paradigms.

After the completion of this course, the course participants should be able to:

• Demonstrate an understanding and apply different interpretations of Sustainable Energy Development
• Understand energy’s role in key sustainable development paradigms:

1. Circular economy
2. Planetary boundaries
3. Hard sustainability
4. Soft sustainability

• Understand and map how the energy system relates to:

1. Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals
2. Social sustainability
3. Economic sustainability
4. Environmental sustainability

• Quantifying and mapping how energy development impacts on (and is impacted by):

1. Land-use
2. Water-use
3. Climate mitigation and adaptation
4. Socio-economy (including the macro economy, urban and rural settlements)

• Understand sustainable development challenges to be tackled by key KTH research areas:

1. Applied Thermodynamics and Refrigeration
2. Heat and Power Technology
3. Heating and Ventilation
4. Climate Studies
5. Systems Analysis
6. Low carbon energy supply integration

• To define the so called ‘Science-Policy Interface’ and understand the importance of  communication to a broader public, including decision makers
• PhD students need to point out how their research relates to sustainability paradigms and contextualise it within broader systems.

Admitted to PhD studies.

1. Perspectives on Sustainable Energy Development (UNDESA)
   https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/index.php?page=view&type=400&nr=637&menu=1515
2. Mapping Synergies & Trade-offs between energy and the sustainable development goals Fuso Nerini et al. Nature Energy. 2017  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-017-0036-5
3. Integrated analysis of climate change, land-use, energy and water strategies
   https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate1789
4. Steffen et al. 2015. Planetary Boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet. Science Vol. 347 no. 6223 http://science.sciencemag.org/content/347/6223/1259855
5. Watson RT. Turning science into policy: challenges and experiences from the science–policy interface. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 2005;360(1454):471-477.
   http://dx.doi:10.1098/rstb.2004.1601.
6. Howarth C and Painter J 2016 Exploring the science–policy interface on climate change: The role of the IPCC in informing local decision-making in the UK Palgrave Commun. 2 16058
   http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/palcomms.2016.58

Additional course literature will be updated, based on advances in the field.

If the course is discontinued, students may request to be examined during the following two academic years.

• PRO1 - Project, 6.0 credits, grading scale: P, F
• PRO2 - Project, 3.0 credits, grading scale: P, F

Based on recommendation from KTH’s coordinator for disabilities, the examiner will decide how to adapt an examination for students with documented disability.

The examiner may apply another examination format when re-examining individual students.

The students will be examined with a pass or fail criteria (P/F), based on the following:

• Draft article for popular science presenting broad sustainability implications of one´s PhD project
• Evaluation of an energy policy/project in light of all SDGs´169 Targets to analyse synergies and trade-offs between a policy/project and the broader 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 

Francesco Fuso-Nerini

• All members of a group are responsible for the group's work.
• In any assessment, every student shall honestly disclose any help received and sources used.
• In an oral assessment, every student shall be able to present and answer questions about the entire assignment and solution.

All seminars, except the Final Public Seminar, may be followed online through Abode Connect platform, the link to the course sessions will be given to the students prior to the start of the course.

As the course is offered in Remote Learning, the necessary equipment are a computer equipped with proper microphone and speaker/head set and an internet connection suitable for distance learning (failing to connect is not an option).