RENEWABLE ENERGY IN GERMAN UNIVERSITY EDUCATION - OVERVIEW OF DIFFERENT APPROACHES AND LESSONS LEARNED

摘要

The tremendous increase in the renewable energy (RE) sector requires many more people to be educated at all the various levels in RE and at the level of tertiary education: vocational training and various levels of university education. This paper describes the adaptation of the German universities (Universities and Universities of Applied Sciences) to this change in the society in the recent years. Until now, there are many more than 100 different graduate and post-graduate disciplines and courses offered at German universities on all RE and energy efficiency (EE) subjects. Mostly, the courses are in the German language, but increasingly in English. The increasing level of intensity in RE and EE stems from a few general subjects up to special Ph.D. programs on solar thermal system designs and optimization, and wind energy technology. The disciplines and courses can be categorized into various groups, with a common educational approach. This paper describes the different approaches and their specialties. Special focus is given to the relevance of RE and EE to German industry and business. Examples of typical curricula for the various categories are presented. Finally some lessons learned from the various approaches are presented and discussed. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to show an overview of the very diverse situation in Germany. This may serve as an example for other countries to build up their RE and EE educational systems, to cope with any forthcoming changes.