Specialization Course on Energy for Sustainability
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The Specialization Course in Energy for Sustainability at the University of Coimbra (SCESUC) aims at developing its students' abilities to contribute to interdisciplinary interventions in areas such as the efficient use of energy, centralized or decentralized energy production, or the distribution of energy, always under a sustainable development perspective. Upon completion of this post-graduate course, students will have developed competences in the technological domains associated to these areas, as well as the domains of economics and the environment; they will have acquired capacities to analyze systems and their interrelations; they will be able to develop projects and tackle problems concerning the energy-environment binomial, addressing topics such as the evaluation of systems' sustainability, using life-cycle models, materials flow analysis, geographical information systems, market economics analyzes, or market regulation mechanisms.
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Admission and Program's Operation
- 1st Phase: From February, 4th, to March 29th
- 2nd Phase: From April 1st to July 15th
- 3rd Phase: From August 19th to September 6th
Applications: Submited here (for English version please click on the flag).
Applications deadlines 2019|2020 (Link_PT)
Requirements: Candidates to the SCESUC program should have a degree in the area of Economics, Management, Engineering, Natural sciences, or Architecture
Tuition fee: 1600 EUR (Please confirm for the current year in the Academic Services
Vacancies: 20 (Please confirm for the current year in the Academic Services
Language: Classes are taught in English given that non Portuguese speaking students are regularly attending (*). Study materials are also available in English
Schedule: The most nuclear courses of the program have classes scheduled for Thursday, Friday and Saturday
(*) the Portuguese language is used only when there are no non-Portuguese speaking students in class
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SCESUC Organization
The SCESUC is organized in two semesters, allowing each student to obtain 48 ECTS from elective courses. The SCESUC program offers three specialization areas plus a common kernel of general courses. The areas of specialization address energy sustainability at different levels:
Macro-scale | Energy Systems and Policy
In this area, courses are offered to allow students to master topics related with energy and environmental economics, energy markets in various forms of organization and regulation, efficient use of energy and overcoming market barriers, organization of transportation systems for sustainability, among other topics.
Medium-scale | Buildings and Urban Environment
This area builds competences for designing and analyzing urban-scale systems, both under a perspective of space organization, at the crossroads of criteria related to the sustainable use of natural resources, functionality, and fruition, and the under a perspective of buildings as complex systems, addressing conception and operation in a context of efficiency, as well as human comfort and health.
Small-scale | Indoor Climate and Comfort
Besides studying the design and operation of Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, this area soughs to improve competences in topics such as analysis of comfort, simulation of energy in buildings, computational analysis of fluid dynamics, or the influence of the buildings' opaque envelope on comfort.The publication of the EU Directive EPBD (Energy Performance of Buildings Directive) has induced national laws and regulations concerning the certification of buildings and the monitoring of their consumptions. This new reality demands for an increase of the number of professionals with specialized technical education in the areas of HVAC in European countries.
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SCESUC Program Structure and Courses
Courses totalling 48 ECTS are divided into mandatory (24 ects) and elective (24 ects). In both cases they depend on the chosen area of specialization according to the following criteria:
- 12 ECTS credits of compulsory courses (Table I)
- 12 ECTS credits of compulsory courses in the chosen area of specialization (Table II or Table III or Table IV)
- 12 ECTS credits of elective courses in the chosen area of specialization (Table II or Table III or Table IV)
- 12 ECTS credits chosen freely among courses in Tables II, III, IV e V. One of the courses freely chosen, up to 6 ECTS, can be a course offered by the University of Coimbra not listed in the tables below, but he student should first ask for an authorization by the coordinatiors of the course.
This list of courses should not be regarded as permanent, the Scientific and Management Coordination Committee can add new options in the future, to reflect the evolution of this area.
- Research areas of the lecturers and researchers involved in the Energy for Sustainability Initiative
Table I - Compulsory Courses
| Courses | ECTS | Semester |
| Conversion, production and storage of energy | 6 | 1º |
| Fundamentals of Operational Research | 6 | 1º |
| Introduction to Energy Systems | 6 | 1º |
| Decision Analysis | 6 | 1º |
| Innovation and Entrepreneurship | 6 | 2º |
| Instrumentation and Measurement | 6 | 2º |
| Energy Planning and Sustainable Development | 6 | 2º |
Table II - Courses in the area of Buildings and Urban Environment
| Courses | ECTS | Type |
| Envelope Characterization and Optimization | 6 | Elective (1º sem) |
| Buildings and Environment | 6 | Compulsory (2º sem) |
| Energy Management in Buildings* | 6 | Compulsory (1º sem) |
| Environment and Organization of Space | 6 | Elective (2º sem) |
| HVAC in Buildings | 6 | Elective (2º sem) |
| Building Technology and Rehabilitation for Façades and Roofs | 6 | Elective (2º sem) |
Table III - Courses in the area of Energy Systems and Policy
| Courses | ECTS | Type |
| Environmental Economics (**) | 6 | Elective (2º sem) |
| Energy Economics and Energy Markets | 6 | Compulsory (1º sem) |
| Energy Management in Industry(*) | 6 | Elective (1º sem) |
| Policies for Energy Market Transformation | 6 | Elective (2º sem) |
| Industrial Ecology | 6 | Elective (1º sem) |
| Renewable Energy Systems | 6 | Compulsory (2º sem) |
Table IV - Courses in the area of Indoor Climate and Comfort
| Courses | ECTS | Type |
| Indoor Environmental Quality | 6 | Compulsory (1º sem) |
| Computational Fluid Mechanics | 6 | Elective (1º sem) |
| Simulation of Energy in Buildings | 6 | Elective (1º sem) |
| Energy and Indoor Environmental Quality audits | 6 | Elective (2º sem) |
Table IV - Elective Courses
| Courses | ECTS | Type |
| Decision Analysis | 6 | Elective (2º sem) |
| Fundamentals of Operational Research | 6 | Elective (1º sem) |
| Innovation and Entrepreneurship | 6 | Elective (2º sem) |
(*) The courses “Energy Management in Buildings” and “Energy Management in Industry” are lectured in the same time slots. It is therefore not possible to attend both courses simultaneously.
