Join an energy transition course you can study flexibly, 100% online.

Build the technical knowledge and skills you need to understand and promote the green energy transition.

In this Masters-level online short course, you’ll develop a detailed understanding of:

  • the current energy system
  • the opportunities and challenges of the energy transition
  • the technologies and drivers needed to enable the energy transition
  • emerging green technologies, including hydrogen, biomass, wind, and solar.

Develop a holistic understanding of the energy transition

As well as its technical aspects, you’ll also examine the energy transition’s social, economic, regulatory, and environmental enablers and impacts.

Who can join this online energy transition course?

This distance-learning course is open to graduates in any discipline.

It’s ideal learning for:

  • graduates from a broad range of disciplines (STEM, law, social sciences)
  • oil and gas sector workers interested in energy transition careers
  • councils and public stakeholders keen to expand their energy transition projects.

Build credits towards a Masters degree

This online course is part of:

You can use the credits you earn on this short course towards this MSc qualification.

What you’ll study

In this course, you’ll study the energy transition via areas including demand, technology, and economics.

You’ll explore:

  • the current energy system and the motivation for transitioning away from fossil fuels
  • the major drivers behind our social and economic reliance on energy, and
  • the behavioural measures and technologies needed to enable the energy transition.

You’ll learn to assess these according to diverse technical, economic and environmental criteria.

You’ll cover the following topics:

  • Introduction to the energy transition
  • Metrics for characterising low carbon technologies
  • Energy service demands and drivers
  • Energy efficiency potentials on the demand side
  • System-level opportunities for efficiency and optimisation
  • Challenges of integrating renewable energy technologies, including energy storage
  • Renewable resources and technologies, including wind, solar, hydropower, hydrogen, biomass, and heat pumps.

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to...

  • Justify the energy transition in a broad international context.
  • Explain the need to implement integrated actions towards the energy transition.
  • Explain the fundamentals of the most relevant renewable energy sources.
  • Identify critical aspects of the different technologies applied in the energy transition.
  • Assess environmental and social impacts of renewable technologies.
  • Collect relevant data for renewable energy systems.
  • Model renewable energy systems at a basic level.
  • Calculate energy generation and consumption.
  • Communicate technical findings to both expert and non-expert audiences.
  • Interpret basic financial concepts, including the levelised cost of energy, and return on investment.
  • Report scientific data crucial for the energy transition.
  • Critically compare different renewable technologies.

Choose the University of Aberdeen for online energy transition training

Earn as you learn

We fit around full-time work, so you can earn qualifications while you keep earning a salary.

You’re in expert hands

We’ve been training energy professionals for decades and delivering online learning for over 20 years.

20% alumni discount

University of Aberdeen alumni get 20% off this online course.

How you’ll study

Online learning

This distance-learning energy transition course is delivered flexibly, 100% online.

You can learn with us anywhere, no student visa required, and manage your study hours to suit you.

Your teaching

This course is taught at Masters level.

Teaching is delivered through MyAberdeen, our online Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It holds all the materials, tools and support you’ll need in your studies. Take a look around MyAberdeen.

You can access your learning materials on computer, smartphone and laptop, 24 hours a day. You’ll find a range of resources available, including:

  • live online teaching and tutorials
  • reading materials
  • discussion boards with your tutor and peers
  • the online resources of our award-winning Sir Duncan Rice Library.

Live online teaching and tutorials

You’ll have three hours of live online teaching each week, including an online tutorial where you can ask questions and seek advice and feedback. Live sessions will be recorded, so you can access them after they’ve taken place.

Industry input

Through virtual visits and invited talks, you’ll have access to industry experts working in the energy transition and renewable energies.

This course is part of MSc Energy Transition Systems and Technologies, which features an Industrial Advisory Board. This group of representatives of companies in the renewable energy sector ensure that your learning content is current and addresses real industry needs.

Your teaching team

This course is delivered by our School of Engineering.

You’ll learn from academics who are active researchers in the energy area, with expertise in hydrogen and energy system modelling.

Dr Alf Martinez-Felipe

Alf is a Senior Lecturer in Chemical Engineering and is your course coordinator. His interests cover the design, characterisation, and testing of innovative liquid crystals, ionic liquids, and polymers that can be applied for energy conversion and storage.

Alf is a director on the board of the Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group, with over 280 members involved in the energy transition. He is also a member of the Just Transition Lab and is hydrogen champion at the Centre for Energy Transition.

View Alf’s profile

Dr Yingfang Zhou

Yingfang is a Senior Lecturer in Engineering. His interests are in multiphase flow in porous media. Yingfang performs experimental, theoretical and numerical research into many aspects of flow and transport in porous systems, including pore-scale imaging, modelling and analysis of displacement processes, and large-scale simulation using simulation tools.

View Yingfang’s profile

Where this will take you

Towards a Masters

You’ll earn 15 credits at Masters level (SCQF Level 11) with this course. You can use these credits towards our online:

Masters in Energy Transition Systems and Technologies

Join an online MSc that’s training the next generation of systems engineers. Help our planet transition from oil and gas to net-zero, with a degree you can study online, part-time.

View MSc Energy Transition Systems and Technologies

Build your learning with more energy transition courses

We offer a range of online energy transition courses you can use to build your skills and qualifications.

All these short courses are designed to fit around full-time work. Most carry credits that build up into postgraduate qualifications, including Masters degrees:

Careers

You’ll complete this course with enhanced, multidisciplinary skills in the areas of renewable energies and the energy transition.

This course is designed to help you progress within or towards a career in the energy transition, in areas including:

  • management
  • energy consultancy
  • finance
  • administration
  • research and development
  • education.

Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

Your employer or professional institute may recognise this course for CPD hours. Talk to your employer or institute to find out more.

Free career support

Access our free careers service while you study.

  • 1:1 appointments
  • CV checks
  • Interview prep
  • Job opportunities

See how our careers service can help you.

Entry requirements

This course has no formal entry requirements. You decide if it’s suitable for you.

The course is delivered at Masters level. At this level, you’d usually have at least:

  • a 2:2 UK undergraduate degree (or equivalent), or
  • relevant experience that supports this level of study.