An empirical study investigating the teaching of renewable energy sources which are important in the global financial crisis environment at university level. What others manifest

Abstract

In the present study, to discover how teaching of renewable energy sources in Turkey is carried out at the university level, a questionnaire was developed and administered at different universities in Turkey. The analyses conducted on the data obtained from the questionnaire revealed that education about geothermal, solar and wind energy is given at master’s level, other renewable energy sources are taught at the undergraduate level within the curriculum of some engineering courses. The teaching performed about renewable energy sources is in Turkish and at encyclopaedic level. As the preparation and obtaining of the required materials are costly, some problems are encountered in the teaching of renewable sources. In Turkish universities, no degree about renewable energy sources is granted. Hence, the country must make use of the people having engineering degree to capitalize on its renewable energy sources. As there is no program specializing on providing training about the renewable energy sources, it seems to be difficult to find experts about the issue. The current state of renewable energy sources education seems to be inadequate and it should be expanded and strengthened.