The Doctor of Renewable Energy program helps students develop practical skills and knowledge required to critically evaluate alternative energy sources, and provide applied solutions to the energy demand. The major is decidedly interdisciplinary in nature, focusing on the underlying natural processes relating to renewable energy and employing the scientific method.

Energy is essential for the organization of society, for transportation, to maintain the proper temperature in our homes in winter and summer, and for the operation of industry, farms and offices. In spite of everything, many energy resources are finite and, at higher levels, energy consumption is, in general, a source of pollution.

The research thesis of this PhD should investigate the reasons why modern society relies on stable and readily available energy supplies. Renewable energy is an increasingly important component of energy sources. The research should cover energy conversion, use and storage of renewable technologies such as wind, solar, biomass, fuel cells and hybrid systems.

Provide the knowledge, techniques and systemic vision required to produce scientifically relevant contributions involving the design, analysis, control and operation of systems that support energy, material and information flows, in particular regarding, conversion transport, storage and use of energy, taking into account the availability of natural resources and their relation to climate change, including the study of their mitigation and resilience factors for adaptation to climate change. The main characteristic of this doctoral program is its holistic view, integrating areas of engineering and environment with those of economics and management, providing an analysis of the energy systems in the perspective of sustainable development. It is also an objective of the doctoral program to gradually qualify students for the autonomous development of research and development work by integrating them into research teams with a special emphasis on the preparation and elaboration of the thesis.