The Renewable Energy (RE) Industry Workforce Needs: RE Simulation and Analysis Tools Teaching as an Effective Way to Enhance Undergraduate Engineering Students’ Learning

The share of renewables in the U.S. electricity generation mix is increasing and one of the major obstacles to enhancing employment in the renewable energy (RE) sector is finding skilled/qualified labor to fill positions. RE systems engineer jobs mostly need bachelor’s degrees but there are few RE e...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Shahryar Jafarinejad, Lauren E. Beckingham, Mandar Kathe, Kathy Henderson
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: MDPI AG 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/bb2857373f3f486bbfb7e708405d64b3
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
Descripción
Sumario:The share of renewables in the U.S. electricity generation mix is increasing and one of the major obstacles to enhancing employment in the renewable energy (RE) sector is finding skilled/qualified labor to fill positions. RE systems engineer jobs mostly need bachelor’s degrees but there are few RE engineering-focused degree programs. Therefore, there are needs to accurately train undergraduate engineering students at universities and match the education system offerings to meet RE industry demands. This study reviews RE employment by technology, RE industry workforce needs, and engineering programs accreditation, and then suggests possible means, along with theoretical RE concepts, to enhance undergraduate engineering students’ RE learning at universities. In particular, RE industries require technology skills, including analytical, scientific, and simulation software programs or tools. These RE simulation and analysis tools can be used for teaching, training, techno-economic analysis, planning, designing, optimization, etc., and are the focus of this review.