Energie: Société et environnement

This course examines the sustainability of human societies through the lens of energy. At once a solution and a challenge, energy is at the center of numerous technical, social, environmental, and political debates, all set against the broader question of the energy transition: why, how, and to what extent? The course aims to develop students’ ability to engage in these debates with discernment, clarity, nuance, and methodological rigor.

Each class session focuses on a specific theme, introducing its fundamental concepts as well as dedicated analytical tools. An interdisciplinary perspective is built through the study of the energy transition, individual assignments, and the analysis of discourse produced by stakeholders with diverse areas of expertise.

• Societal debates related to energy: Why, how, and to what extent should the transition occur?
• Energy as a concept in the exact sciences: physics and chemistry
• Energy carriers (commodities): fuels and electricity
• Energy as a market product and energy markets
• Energy chains from resource to service: concepts and quantification of flows
• Energy uses: energy requirements for human activities and influencing factors
• Mineral and energy natural resources (for energy purposes)
• Energy technologies and systems
• Energy and the environment: environmental and health impacts of energy use
• Energy statistics
• Guest lectures by external experts (e.g., technological and social innovation, just transition, sociology of energy, politics and geopolitics)

Upon completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding: Explain

• Explain knowledge (concepts, methods, and orders of magnitude) with discernment (appropriateness to the question), clarity (effective communication), and precision (specialized terminology), and illustrate them with concrete examples.
• Use reference elements (orders of magnitude, standard devices, excerpts from the bibliography, etc.) to validate results or support arguments.
• Extract relevant information from figures, diagrams, tables, and bibliographic references.

Practical Skills: Approximate Quantification

• Formulate equations relevant to a given problem with discernment, identify variables and, where necessary, formulate assumptions, then solve and express results appropriately (rounding, significant digits, units).
• Estimate orders of magnitude in a variety of energy-related situations using simple arithmetic (conversions, factors, proportionality), basic scientific formulas (mathematics, physics, economics), and realistic assumptions.
• Assess the validity and robustness of results with respect to assumptions (e.g., realistic order of magnitude, inclusion of key factors, significant figures) and identify sensitivity factors.

Practical Skills: Develop Methodical and Interdisciplinary Thinking
Analyze energy-related situations using frameworks from the exact sciences, technology, environmental studies, statistics, economics, sociology, or political science, while appropriately mobilizing course knowledge.
Develop structured and well-argued reasoning in energy-related cases using a multidisciplinary approach (i.e., combining several disciplines) and critical thinking, including robustness analysis.
Summarize presentations by clearly communicating essential or notable elements while remaining relevant to the content presented (e.g., exit tickets and personal assignments).

Required and Corequired knowledge and skills

A general science background equivalent to secondary education.

The course combines:

• Face-to-face teaching (lectures and guest presentations)
• Podcasts and other media resources
• Practical exercise submission
• Individual assignments through the Virtual University platform (exit tickets, synthesis notes, or specific analyses)

Campus

Solbosch

Method(s) of evaluation

• Other

Other

Language(s) of evaluation

• french