Curriculum | Master's structure | Sustainable Energy Technology

The Master’s in Sustainable Energy Technology (SET) consists of two years, in which you will collect a total of 120 EC. During the first year, you will follow mandatory courses. The second year consists of elective courses, an internship and eventually your master’s thesis.

European Credit Transfer System

Student workload at Dutch universities is expressed in EC, also named ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System), which is widely used throughout the European Union. In the Netherlands, each credit represents 28 hours of work.

Contents of year 1

Year 1 Sustainable Energy Technology
Mandatory courses The courses in the first year are mandatory and can be divided into the following four themes.*
1. Energy sources	15 EC	Hydrogen Technology Solar Energy Wind Energy
2. Technology and sustainability	15 EC	Energy Conversion Technology Energy Storage Life-Cycle Strategy
3. Socio-economics	15 EC	Business Models for Sustainable Energy Energy,Sustainability and Society System Innovation and Strategic Niche Management
4. Design and System Integration	15 EC	Basics for Process Simulation Electrical Power Engineering & System Integration Thermodynamics and Flowsheeting
Total EC first year	60 EC

* In the first year, you can use up to two wildcards to swap a mandatory course (1 per theme) for an elective from a diverse range of subjects.

Contents of year 2

During your second year, you will have the opportunity to work towards your own expertise by choosing specialised courses and writing your master's thesis on a specific subject. Examples of research areas you could focus on include Solar energy, Wind energy, Biomass, Energy storage, Intelligent electricity networks or Transition policy. Wherever your interests may lie, there is a great deal of advanced elective courses you can choose from.

Year 2 Sustainable Energy Technology
Internship You will go on a ten-week practical internship in the field of sustainable energy technology.	15 EC	The internship is mandatory unless you are a bachelor's student entering from a university of applied science (Dutch HBO) and have considerable industrial experience. In that case, you could also choose to follow 15 EC master’s courses, instead of doing an internship.
Advanced elective courses In order to prepare yourself for your master’s thesis, you choose three advanced courses out of a wide range of electives.	15 EC	Examples of electives are: Building Integrated Photovoltaics Policy Instruments and Evaluation in Environment and Sustainability Electric Vehicle System Design Bioresource Business Development and Management Sustainable Chemicals
Master's thesis You will spend the last semester of your Master’s on graduating by writing your master’s thesis.	30 EC
Total EC Second year	60 EC

Your internship and thesis

In your second year, you will go on a ten-week internship to gain practical experience and finally complete your Master's in SET by writing your master's thesis.

Internship

There are many options open to you when it comes to choosing your internship. Roughly speaking, there are two types of companies where you could complete your internship: you can either help ‘grey’ businesses go green, enabling them to successfully implement renewable energy solutions, or you can go for green incubators, companies that are dedicated to the realisation of sustainable energy technology from the start.

You can even go abroad! We often arrange international internships, in for example China, South Africa, Nicaragua or Brazil. Whatever your choice, we will help you to secure an internship that suits your specific field of interest.

Examples of internships our students took on, include:

Participating in sustainable energy projects at the University Centre in Svalbard (Spitsbergen), for example: detecting heat losses for buildings and heat transport systems;
Identifying various options of value chains of carbon capture and usage (converting CO2 tot energy or chemicals) at waste processor Twence;
Designing electric circuits at power management company Eaton.

Master's thesis

The last semester is dedicated to your master’s thesis. The choice of your graduation subject is largely up to you. You could focus on solar energy, wind energy, biomass, energy storage, intelligent electricity networks or transition policy, to name just a few of the many options. You will write your thesis under the supervision of a professor of one of the research groups. You could (partially) execute your research project at an external institution or organisation as well.

Your master's thesis could involve undertaking projects such as:

Developing optimal integration strategies for a green tiny house energy system;
Improving the sustainability and financial performance of industrial laundry dryers;
Analysing the self-shading effect of Building Integrated Photovoltaic windows.

Questions?

Do you need in-depth information about this Master’s? Contact us!

Contents of year 1

Year 1 Sustainable Energy Technology

Contents of year 2

Year 2 Sustainable Energy Technology

Your internship and thesis

Questions?