Energy is central to our society, now more than ever. Our economy and way of life rely on access to affordable, reliable power. Whether for transportation, heating, manufacturing, or lighting, energy systems are critical infrastructure.
As we transition from fossil fuels to sustainable energy, every aspect of how we generate, distribute, and secure the energy that powers our lives is changing rapidly. Ensuring that we have reliable generation and distribution systems is key to our economic stability and strength. At the same time, the need for greenhouse gas reduction and energy equity, and the impacts of climate change on infrastructure are increasingly urgent concerns.
Energy systems engineers help address some of these pressing issues facing humanity. We must transition our complex and varied energy generation and distribution systems quickly as we transition to an electricity-based world.
Engineers who understand how energy is generated, stored, managed and delivered are in very high demand. They use their technical ingenuity to create and implement new technologies that impact every part of our lives, including designing and deploying:
- EV charging infrastructure
- advanced wind and hydroelectric turbines
- small modular reactors for nuclear energy
- grid-scale energy storage for wind and solar power
- new technologies to reduce the impacts of fossil fuel extraction, refining and use
- and more
In EngSci's Energy Systems Engineering major, students learn to tackle urgent technical issues in energy generation, storage, transmission, and distribution, while gaining an understanding of environmental, public policy, and economic impacts.
The curriculum develops experts for the energy sector and beyond through fundamental technical training in multidisciplinary courses. Topics covered include clean energy, sustainability, thermodynamics, nuclear energy, control systems, and electric drives.
The major provides the breadth, depth, and interdisciplinary knowledge required in this exciting field. Students learn to evaluate tradeoffs between different traditional and alternative technologies, explore technical aspects within a societal context, examine links to conservation and sustainable development, and gain a rigorous foundation relevant to many energy topics.
Courses are taught by renowned faculty members from the Departments of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, and U of T's Institute for Sustainable Energy. An exciting new development in the Toronto area is the establishment of the new NRC Advanced Materials Research Facility, where energy researchers will be engaged with clean energy research.
The Energy Systems Engineering major meets the growing need for more experts in this field in Ontario, Canada, and around the world. It prepares graduates for exciting careers in technology development, energy companies, and policy agencies in areas as diverse as designing new electricity markets to enable the shift to 100% sustainable generation; planning future electricity grids to power greenhouses and other facilities with renewable and nuclear generation; and boosting efficiency from the megawatt (industry/commercial/grid) to milliwatt (power electronics) level.
Graduates have gone onto specialized technical research careers, systems engineering in energy distribution companies, and have specialized in energy policy with career trajectories in government.
FAQs
YES! Nations around the world are moving towards decarbonization, electrification, and the wide-spread use of renewable energy. Several recent reports have noted a skilled labour shortage in this sector.
Governments are making major investments in clean energy technologies such as nuclear generation, advanced transmission systems, pumped hydroelectric storage, and other infrastructure that make up a clean electricity systems.
Transport electrification (EVs) is also a growth area with diverse specializations. This includes the design of battery interfaces with the grid (e.g., fast DC chargers rely on advances in power electronics, high-power chargers require redesign of the grid), EV motor control to improve efficiency and performance (electric drives), and policy design to incentivize public uptake.
While there are other avenues for studying energy at U of T Engineering, EngSci's major provides training that is not otherwise available in the other disciplines.
All engineering undergraduates except those in the EngSci Energy Systems Engineering major can pursue the Sustainable Energy minor.
As an undergraduate student, you can learn about energy distribution and transmission in the Electrical & Computer Engineering Program, energy generation in the Mechanical Engineering Program, and energy storage in the Materials Science & Engineering Program. In contrast, EngSci's major will provide you with tremendous depth and breadth in all of these topics, providing the ultimate training for energy experts of tomorrow.
Yes! Many students are employed right after graduation by energy providers, consulting firms, manufacturers and a host of new energy service firms. While many of our graduates choose this route, others go on to graduate school to become qualified for more specialized responsibilities.
The major prepares motivated and capable students for advanced energy studies and degrees in mechanical, civil, electrical, chemical, and industrial engineering, and even material science. However, students are not limited to these areas and some have pursued degrees in law, medicine, business, and science programs.
The strong emphasis on ECE topics reflects the importance of the role electricity plays in decarbonization of industry and transportation. However, unlike ECE engineers, Energy Systems engineers go beyond a purely-electrical mindset and understand the fundamentals of the role that mechanical, chemical, and nuclear energy play in transitioning towards a more sustainable society, e.g., through the use of fuel cells and hydrogen.
Courses include some from chemical engineering (CHE374, CHE 469), mechanical engineering (MIE 303), aerospace engineering (AER 372), and civil engineering (CIV401).
Our major provides an internationally unique program that prepares students to be energy experts in a highly dynamic energy landscape-able to pivot easily between fields and to grow in any direction within this field.
We provide a broad list of pre-approved "energy systems electives" for Year 4 but students can personalize their curriculum to meet their education and career goals. Since energy systems is such a broad and multi-faceted domain, we permit and encourage students to map out a strong set of electives beyond our pre-approved list. Substitutions require approval and must meet certain criteria to create a coherent and complementary curriculum.
Did you know...?
Students can explore energy topics in student clubs like IEEE's U of T Branch and the Sustainable Engineers Association.
Sample Courses
Clean, sustainable and renewable energy
In this course students examine the engineering behind typical wind and hydroelectric plants, from first principles to the various types of turbo-machines choices.
Topics include fundamental fluid mechanics equations, efficiency coefficients, momentum exchanges, characteristic curves, similarity laws, specific speed, vibration, cavitation of hydraulic turbines, pump/turbines; variable speed machines including transients and hydraulic stability. The course includes an introduction to overall system configuration, component and system optimization, and case studies.
In this course, students develop expertise in energy systems and technologies from a broader perspective. It covers the basic principles, current technologies and applications of selected alternative energy systems, including solar thermal systems, solar photovoltaic systems, wind, wave, and tidal energy, energy storage, and grid connections issues.
Nuclear energy
In this course, students examine nuclear technology, atomic and nuclear physics, thermonuclear fusion, nuclear fission, nuclear power plants, environment and nuclear safety, and the nuclear fuel cycle.
Students learn the basic principles of the neutronic design and analysis of nuclear fission reactors. Topics include radioactivity, neutron interactions with matter, the fission chain reaction, reactivity effects and reactor kinetics.
Other topics
This course examines how a diesel engine works and how to design refrigeration systems. Topics include engineering applications of thermodynamics in the analysis and design of heat engines and other thermal energy conversion processes within an environmental framework; steam power plants; gas cycles in internal combustion engines, gas turbines and jet engines; fossil fuel and alternative fuel combustion; fusion processes and introduction to advanced systems of fuel cells.
Where this major can take you
Graduates have internationally unique training with the depth and breadth required to seamlessly pivot within academia, industry, and government. Meet some of our alumni.
Employers for recent graduates include Boston Consulting Group, Hatch, Independent Electricity System Operator, Ontario Power Authority, Shoppers Drug Mart, Toronto Hydro, and others. Some are also working in energy policy in government agencies and consulting groups.
Recent alumni have attended graduate school at Johns Hopkins University, MIT, Stanford University, U of T, UC Berkeley, and more.
Read one energy systems student's journey from undergraduate researcher to MIT graduate student.
Chair of the Energy Systems Engineering major
Professor Zeb Tate (ECE)
Professor Tate’s research focuses on combining advanced telemetry, data processing, and visualization techniques to facilitate renewable integration and improve the reliability and efficiency of the power grid.