The energy landscape is changing rapidly. Traditional fuels like coal, natural gas and oil are being replaced by an energy mix of renewables, hydrogen, biogas and nuclear. Companies and businesses are rapidly adapting to new patterns of energy and electricity usage to reduce costs and emissions. New opportunities and businesses are being formed for managing carbon dioxide.
With this dramatic — and urgent — change afoot, Utah’s students not only need to understand how alternative energy is generated and integrated with the grid, but also a host of business, societal, and policy issues that those technologies raise.
The Utah System of Higher Education (USHE) and its Deep Technology Talent Initiative are funding programs that will prepare students for a workforce that demands these sorts of technology skills. From artificial intelligence, to nanotechnology, to quantum computing, such “Deep Tech” disciplines are increasingly critical for an innovative economy.
Alternative energy is one of USHE’s Deep Tech priorities; it has tapped the University of Utah to develop a series of courses that will be available to enrolled students on campus, as well as industry professionals via the U’s Connected Learning Program.
Starting Fall 2025, Students who complete the five-course series will earn a Certificate in Resilient Energy Engineering. The University of Utah’s Energy & Geoscience Institute (EGI), a research center at the intersection of the John and Marcia Price College of Engineering’s departments of Chemical Engineering, Civil & Environmental Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering, and the College of Science’s Department of Geology & Geophysics, will oversee the certificate program.
“The existing energy workforce in the state of Utah needs to be educated and trained in the implementation, adaptation, and management of these new alternative energy technologies,” says EGI Director Milind Deo, Peter D. and Catherine R. Meldrum Endowed Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering. “This is particularly true of the workforce in rural Utah where a significant portion of traditional energy resources are located; these demographics are often seeing and experiencing the largest transformation.”
Professors from multiple Price College departments have developed and will teach the certificate’s five courses: Alternative Energy; Geoscience for Energy Transition; Carbon Capture, Utilization and Sequestration; Power and Engineering systems – Economics and Operation; and Energy Entrepreneurship. New course offerings are planned.
This interdisciplinary approach is essential for helping professionals and students navigate the changing energy landscape, and the U’s connections to the worlds of research and industry will give them opportunities to put their new knowledge to practical use. The certificate program will integrate its curriculum with on-campus initiatives, such as the University of Utah Energy Power Innovation Center and the Intermountain Industrial Assessment Center, as well as EGI’s Utah FORGE, the largest geothermal research and development project in the world. The program also intends to partner with major statewide power generation and management partners for curriculum development and program execution.
Students in the departments of Chemical Engineering, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Electrical & Computer Engineering will be able to take individual courses as electives, or all five together to “stack” the certificate on top of their existing bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs.