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University of Toronto

Wind, Waves and Tides: Alternative Energy Systems

University of Toronto via Coursera

This course may be unavailable.

Overview

The wind is a part of our everyday experience. Anyone who has lived on a coast or even vacationed there is familiar with waves and tides. That these naturally-occurring fluid flows contain energy is intuitively recognizable and indeed technologies to harvest wind and tidal energy were in use centuries ago. Our current quest for sustainable energy sources has led us to refocus once again on the potential of wind, waves and tides. This course will explain and describe the technologies to extract energy from each. The strengths and weaknesses of these various technologies will be discussed and illustrated through case studies of specific installations.

Syllabus

MODULE 1 - WIND ENERGY

• Part A  Wind sources and influences (week 1)• Part B  Fundamentals of wind energy technology (week 2)• Part C  Predicting wind turbine output (week 3)• Part D  Economic and environmental issues (week 4)• Part E  Case studies (week 4)

MODULE 2 – WAVE ENERGY

• Part A  Wave energy fundamentals (week 5)• Part B  Wave energy converters (week 6)

MODULE 3 – TIDAL ENERGY (week 7)


Taught by

James Wallace

Reviews

2.3 rating, based on 3 Class Central reviews

Start your review of Wind, Waves and Tides: Alternative Energy Systems

  • Anonymous
    I took this course during the fall semester. The online videos are extremely dry and there is a large amount of content itself. It would be better taught in person and more concisely. Assignments are also quite dry and problem sets were challenging. If you are considering a minor in Energy then it may be bearable. I only took it on a recommendation from a friend and I was shocked by how painful it was to complete this course.

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