EGEE 438 Syllabus

EGEE 438 - Wind and Hydropower Energy Conversion

This syllabus is divided into several sections. You can read it sequentially by scrolling down the length of the document or by clicking on any of the links below to “jump” to a specific section. It is essential that you read the entire document as well as material covered in the course Orientation. Together these serve as our course "contract."

• Instructor
• Course Overview
• Required Course Materials
• Assignments and Grading
• Course Schedule
• Tips for Success in EGEE 438
• Course Policies

Instructor

Dr. Susan W. Stewart
Teaching Professor, Aerospace Engineering
Office: 233E Hammond (inside the Aerospace Engineering Suite)
Zoom Meeting Link: https://psu.zoom.us/j/7225048248

• E-mail: Please use the course e-mail system (see the Inbox tab in Canvas). This is the best way to reach me at all times.
• Office Hours: Tues 9:30 - 11 am  and Thur 1:30 - 3 pm in 233E Hammond (if you need to meet remotely, just send an email and let me know, we can use the zoom link above).
• Communications: I will check for and reply to messages at least once a day (often as they are received when I am able). Please contact me to make an appointment if you’d like to speak to me at a given time outside of office hours. 

NOTE: I will read and respond to e-mail at least once per day during the work week (Monday through Friday). You may see me online occasionally on the weekends, but please don't count on it!  I will check in on the Packback Discussion forum ~ 2 times per week.

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Course Overview

Location:  358 Willard, Tues/Thur 12:05 - 1:20 PM

Prerequisites: EGEE 302: Principles of Energy Engineering and EME 303: Fluid Mechanics in Energy and Mineral Engineering (please reach out with questions about whether you are prepared to take this course without these prerequisites)

If you have not completed the listed prerequisites, then promptly consult with the instructor if you have not done so already. Students who re‐enroll after being dis‐enrolled according to this policy are in violation of Item 15 on the Student Code of Conduct.

This course examines the principles of sustainability and renewable energy conversion with emphasis on wind and hydro energy resources. Concentration is placed on the relationships between the renewable resources, conversion technology and economic feasibility along with consideration of the associated risks and environmental impacts. Students will understand both the principles of operation and the application of wind and hydropower technologies in an evolving energy economy. It will complement existing courses on fossil fuel and solar energy conversion. Students will actively participate in learning through team projects and classroom based problem sessions. This is a required course in the energy engineering major and may serve as an elective to other engineering majors.

Course Topics

• Overview of Renewable Energy: Comparisons with conventional technologies, generation and transmission of electricity basics, concepts of dispatchability and peak vs. base load, and economics.
• Wind Power: Resource assessment, power, and energy calculations, aerodynamic analysis, development of the Betz limit, design limitations and optimization, and environmental impact of wind energy conversion devices.
• Water power: Technology overview of conventional hydropower, in-stream hydrokinetics (river/ocean current and tidal power), wave power, resource assessment, power and energy calculations, hydraulic efficiency of turbine operation, design issues, and environmental impact.
• Applied Energy System Analysis: Applying the principles learned from the previous segments to a site specific application.

Toward these objectives, students who successfully complete EGEE 438 will be able to:

1. Apply principles of mathematics, science, and engineering to the analysis of wind and hydropower technologies and their application.
2. Determine wind and water power resource siting requirements for project development.
3. Calculate and assess how the design of renewable energy technologies and the resulting economics can drive their implementation.
4. Integrate the considerations of economic, environmental, sustainability, health and safety, social, and political factors in the analysis of a wind or water power technology application.
5. Participate effectively in independent and team-based problem-solving.
6. Analyze and communicate information through written and verbal presentation of findings.

What I Expect of You

On average, most students spend eight to ten hours per week working on course assignments. Your workload may be more or less depending on your study habits.

I have worked hard to make this the most effective and convenient educational experience possible. The Internet may still be a novel learning environment for you, but in one sense it is no different than a traditional college class: how much and how well you learn is ultimately up to you. You will succeed if you are diligent about keeping up with the class schedule and if you take advantage of opportunities to communicate with me, as well as with your fellow students. We will meet less frequently because of the time you will spend out of class reviewing the material online. The time we do spend in class will be focused on active learning/problem solving, discussion, and project work.

Specific learning objectives are detailed within each lesson.

Integrity Policy

Honesty, integrity, equity, timeliness, regular attendance, participation, and hard work are keys to professionalism and success. This course adopts the Academic Integrity Policy of the College of Earth and Mineral Science.Any breach of academic integrity will be handled according to the procedures outlined in the College's policy.

Academic integrity includes "a commitment not to engage in or tolerate acts of falsification, misrepresentation, or deception." In particular, the University defines plagiarism as "the fabrication of information and citations; submitting other's work from professional journals, books, articles, and papers; submission of other student's papers, lab results or project reports and representing the work as one's own." Penalties for violations of academic integrity may include course failure. To learn more, see Penn State's "Plagiarism Tutorial for Students." I cannot overemphasize the importance of academic integrity. DO NOT copy and paste from unreferenced sources. Without exception: if you use a direct quote from any source, as part of any submitted assignment, the quote must be clearly noted and properly referenced. (In-line references are fine.)

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Required Course Materials

Packback Questions (online resource)

Participation is a requirement for this course, and the Packback Questions platform (www.packback.co) will be used for online discussion about class topics. Packback Questions is an online curiosity community where you can be fearlessly curious and ask BIG questions about how what we’re studying relates to life and the real world.

Your participation on Packback will count towards 5% of your final grade.  More details on how to achieve these points are in the Course Assignments & Activities Section below.

How to Register on Packback:

An email invitation will be sent to you from holla@packback.co prompting you to finish registration. If you don’t receive an email (be sure to check your spam), you may register by clicking on the Lesson 1 Packback Discussion link inthe Canvas Modules.

If you have ANY questions or concerns regarding Packback throughout the semester, please contact the customer support team at holla@packback.co!

For a brief introduction to Packback Questions and why we are using it in class, watch this video:  vimeo.com/packback/Welcome-to-Packback-Questions

Textbooks

All other materials needed for this course are presented online through our course website, in Canvas, or they will be available in digital format through the Penn State Library. Two reference texts, in particular, are listed below. In order to access all materials, you need to have an active Penn State Access Account user ID and password (used to access the online course resources). If you have any questions about obtaining or activating your Penn State Access Account, please contact IT help. If you are a World Campus student please contact the World Campus Help Desk. If you are a University Park or Commonwealth Campus student, please contact the IT Service Desk.

Wind Energy Handbook, Second Edition, by Tony Burton. 2011.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/book/10.1002/9781119992714 

Wind Energy Explained, Theory Design and Application, Second Edition, by James Manwell. 2009.
http://site.ebrary.com/lib/pennstate/docDetail.action?docID=10419452  

Energy Resources & Systems Volume 2: Renewable Resources, by Ghosh & Prelas.  2011.: http://www.springerlink.com/content/h44000/#section=913398&page=1

Fundamentals and Applications of Renewable Energy, by Kanoğly, Ҫengel and Cimbala, 2020.

Look these titles up on the PSU Library website in Lion Search and look for the "Full text online" link if the links above do not work.  You may need to be logged in to your PSU account via the library.

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Assignments and Grading

EGEE 438 will rely upon a variety of methods to assess and evaluate student learning, including:

Homework Assignments (15 %)

• Algorithmic-based Homework Assignments (8 in total, drop lowest grade)
  • The problems will be provided in variable format– thus the specific values of the variables will be different for each student, provided when you go to answer the problems in the course website. There is no time limit once you start entering your responses, just a due date. You will be able to enter your answers into the course web site and get a graded response.  You will have 5 chances to work these problems.  Each time you start over you will get new numbers to work with.  The highest grade will be what counts. While I understand you may collaborate on these problems to some degree, individual effort is highly recommended for these problems, as it will only hurt you on the quizzes and exams to not understand the methodology for these problems.

Packback Discussion Posts (5%)

• Discussion will be assigned using Packback (8 in total, drop lowest grade)
  • There will be a Weekly Monday at 11:59 PM EST deadline for submissions. In order to receive the full 10 points for this assessment, you should submit the following per each deadline period:
    • 1 open-ended Question per week with a minimum Curiosity Score of 30, worth 4pts of each assignment grade
    • 2 Responses per week with a minimum Curiosity Score of 50, each worth 3 pts of each assignment grade (for a total of 6)
    • Half credit will be provided for responses that do not meet the minimum curiosity score.
    • Time may be provided in class to formulate/submit your responses.
      • Writing amazing questions and answers on Packback will:
        • Help you develop writing skills necessary for any career path
        • Reinforce the imperative skill of justifying thoughts and claims with credible evidence- and then citing the evidence!
        • Enhance critical thinking sought out by employers
        • Deepen your understanding of the course content by gaining diverse insights and perspectives from your peers
  • Note: it takes 24 hours for the Packback team to moderate a post and send a coaching email. If by any reason your post is moderated because it does NOT meet the Community Guidelines, you will need to edit and re-publish your post to receive credit for the week. This is why it is important that you complete your Packback questions and responses far before the deadline in case your post is moderated
  • Before you start posting, be sure to read the Community Guidelines found in the tutorial on Packback. If your post doesn’t follow the Packback Community Guidelines, there is a chance it will be removed and you won’t receive points for that post.
     

Mid-Term Exams (45%)

• There will be 2, timed mid-term exams, taken during class time. See the Calendar in Canvas for specific dates.

Project (20%)

• The project for the semester will have several components, some are graded individually and some will be team based.
  • In the first half of the semester, a few mini-project assignments using wind data sets will be collected via Canvas. Submitted assignments should be clearly legible (typewritten preferred), include the original assignment statement, assumptions, clear description of the methodology and answers highlighted (where applicable) with proper units (points will be deducted for errors in units).
  • In the second half of the semester, an instructor defined team project assignment will require the application of concepts learned throughout the semester.  CATME will be used to both form teams as well as assess team effectiveness.
    • Deliverables for the final team project include:
      • CATME participation (part of participation grade)
      • Preliminary written project report
      • Final project report
      • Project Presentation

Quizzes (10%)

• There will be 8 in total. Nominally, Canvas based quizzes will have 10 questions and you can only complete the quiz once, but you have 30 min to do so. The lowest quiz score will be dropped.

Participation (5%)

• Participation will be graded based on submission of TopHat in-class polls, CATME polls for project team work, as well as participation in class and discussion boards in Canvas.

Late assignments will only be accepted if requested before the due date! The length of the extension will be determined on a case by case basis and will incur a minimum of 10% grade reduction on the assignment (absolutely no credit will be provided if solutions are posted).

Due dates for all assignments are given in the Canvas schedule.  All times noted are in Eastern daylight time.

Grades are assigned by the percentage of possible points earned in each Lesson's activities, as shown below.

I will use the Canvas gradebook to keep track of your grades. You can see your grades in the gradebook, too, by clicking the Grades link in our Canvas course.

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Course Schedule

Printable Schedule

Each lesson with tasks will take one to two weeks to complete. Enrolled students can see specific dates, times, and deadlines, in the the course schedule (syllabus tab) in Canvas.

EGEE 438 Course Schedule

Lessons	Tasks
Lesson 1: Wind Industry	Quiz 1 Lesson 1 Disscussion
Lesson 2: The Wind Resource (split up into 2a & 2b across 2-weeks)	Quiz 2 + Discussion 2 Lesson 2 HW + Mini-Project Assignment 1
Lesson 3: Energy & Economic Analysis	Quiz 3 + Discussion 3 Lesson 3 HW + Mini-Project Assignment 2
Lesson 4: Wind Turbine Aerodynamics (split up into 4a & 4b across 2-weeks)	Quiz 4 + Discussion 4 Lesson 4 HW + Mini-Project Assignment 3 Exam 1 will cover Lessons 1-4
Lesson 5: Project Development and Environmental Impacts	Quiz 5 + Discussion 5 Lesson 5 HW Kickoff Final Project
Lesson 6: Hydroelectric Dams ( (split up into 6a & 6b across 2-weeks)	Quiz 6 + Discussion 6 Lesson 6  HW
Lesson 7: Tidal/Hydrokinetic Power	Quiz 7 + Discussion 7 Lesson 7 HW
Lesson 8: Wave Power	Quiz 8 + Discussion 8 Lesson 8 HW Exam 2 will cover Lessons 5 - 8 Project Report & Presentation

Tips for Success in EGEE 438

• Participate—Odd as it seems, in many ways, an online environment gives us greater opportunity to get to know one other and exchange ideas, challenges, and interesting thoughts. Use the course Discussion Forums to get to know one another, work together, learn from one another, and even have a laugh. It’s a special opportunity. You’ll learn more, enjoy the course more, and probably make a better grade.
• Do the work on time—Activities are the learning assessment tools for this course. In this class, it won’t work to wait three weeks and then cram for an exam. The designated Discussion Forums provide a place where you can work together to surface problems and questions and give me the chance to redirect or provide additional information if needed. I strongly advise not waiting until the last minute to start assignments. Give yourself time to ask, think, and interact with me and your classmates.
• Be responsible and honest—I’m glad you’re taking this course and hope it is a rewarding experience for you with long-lasting benefits. Let’s keep it a good thing. Please review our course policy on Academic Integrity described above. Treat yourself, your classmates, and the instructor with honesty and respect at all times. I'll do the same.

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Course Policies