Science and Policy for Energy Futures
UndergraduateTAS-KGA3192025
Course information for 2025 intake View information for 2024 course intake
Enrol today with instant approval and no entry requirements
- Study method
- 100% online
- Assessments
- 100% online
- Enrol by
- 13 July 2025
- Entry requirements
- No ATAR needed, No prior study
- Duration
- 14 weeks
- Price from
- $2,440
- Upfront cost
- $0
- Loan available
- HECS-HELP and FEE-HELP available
Science and Policy for Energy Futures
About this subject
Upon successful completion of this subject, the student should be able to:
- Describe the energy system in Australia in terms of its production, distribution and consumption, across both space and time.
- Synthesise information from a range of energy sector sources, including government, scientists, industry, and other stakeholders in order to articulate key issues at the science-policy interface.
- Evaluate a range of ethical, regulatory, economic and socio-political contexts as individuals and in teams in order to make recommendations about complex energy sector problems.
- Explain past, present and future processes that shape the Tasmanian energy sector in order to make integrated recommendations sensitive to the Tasmanian context.
- Module 1: Understanding Energy Systems
- Energy Controversies and Conflicts
- Resource and Economic Energy Landscapes
- Infrastructural and Geopolitical Energy Landscapes
- Module 2: The Science-Policy Interface
- The Role of Scientists in the Policy Process
- Energy Expertise and Narratives of the Future
- Risk, Uncertainty and Planning
- Module 3: Energy Futures
- Renewable Technologies
- Energy Storage
- Electric Vehicles
- Green Hydrogen
This subject will equip students with an interdisciplinary understanding of energy systems. Its focus is on how science and policy are interacting to shape Australia’s energy futures. The Australian energy sector is experiencing a period of change, prompted by the availability of new energy technologies as well as new societal expectations, desires and behaviours. Learning will focus on how these changes are being initiated and governed through a range of organisations and institutions, including the state, corporations, community groups, and individual households. The interplay between expert knowledge and decision making will be analysed, with close attention to the politics of technical decision-making processes. This subject is taught collaboratively with input from the Tasmanian energy industry and government. Science and Policy for Energy Futures will be of interest to undergraduate students from Geography, Social Sciences, Engineering and Law.
- Research Brief (Option A) / Position Paper (Option B) (50%)
- Group Workshop Presentation (30%)
- Weekly Quiz from Wk 2 to Wk 13 (20%)
For textbook details check your university's handbook, website or learning management system (LMS).
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Entry requirements
No entry requirements
Additional requirements
- Other requirements - Teaching Arrangement: 1 short lecture (pre-recorded) and 1 x 2-hour workshop per week, as well as independent learning; plus a 2-day online intensive workshop in Week 9.
Study load
- 0.125 EFTSL
- This is in the range of 10 to 12 hours of study each week.
Equivalent full time study load (EFTSL) is one way to calculate your study load. One (1.0) EFTSL is equivalent to a full-time study load for one year.
Find out more information on Commonwealth Loans to understand what this means to your eligibility for financial support.
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What to study next?
Once you’ve completed this subject it can be credited towards one of the following courses
Bachelor of Science (Geography and Environment)
UndergraduateTAS-SCG-DEG
Bachelor of Science (Sustainability)
UndergraduateTAS-SUS-DEG
Bachelor of Psychological Science and Bachelor of Science
UndergraduateTAS-PSC-DEG
Bachelor of Business and Bachelor of Science
UndergraduateTAS-BBS-DEG
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