Course contact details
Admissions Office
Email:studywithus@hw.ac.uk
Phone:0131 451 3729
Heriot-Watt University
Riccarton
Edinburgh
EH14 4AS
Overview of Programme
MSc Renewable Energy Engineering provides you with the opportunity to study a specialist engineering-focused course in the rapidly expanding sector. By studying this programme, you’ll develop critical understanding of the significant changes afoot in the energy system due to the development and integration of wind, marine, biomass, and solar technologies. Upon graduation, you’ll have the necessary knowledge and skills to develop and implement creative solutions to the problems encountered in renewable energy capture, conversion, storage, and management.
You’ll gain the knowledge and skills to assess renewable energy resources, design appropriate renewable energy systems, evaluate the performance of these systems and assess the wider impacts of renewable energy development. You’ll be introduced to fundamental energy science and current energy issues, and complete project-led courses in which you’ll design renewable energy systems in response to such energy issues. By doing so, you’ll be exposed to Renewable Energy resources, how the resources are exploited, and the socio-economic and environmental impacts of Renewable Energy-related activities.
During the programme, you’ll develop detailed knowledge and critical understanding of the core skills, techniques and practices in renewable energy resources, converters and systems and apply this knowledge to complex applications to deliver original and creative solutions to current and emerging problems. On top of practical knowledge and skills, you’ll develop your communication, independent work, and teamwork skills by working effectively with peers, academics, and staff in a variety of tasks.
Your learning environment
During your studies, you’ll benefit from and have access to our specialist equipment, software and laboratories used by professional mechanical engineering, including machining and manufacturing facilities, an air conditioning unit, wind tunnel for fluid mechanics and aerodynamics, 3D printer, and a uniaxial testing machine. You will have the opportunity to work on real-world problems, and work across disciplines to deliver practical solutions with global impact in our state-of-the-art GRID (Global Research Innovation and Discovery) facility.
Customise your learning
You’ll have the opportunity to focus on the areas of renewable energy engineering that interest you the most. You can customise your degree to match your specific interests or desired career pathway by studying five mandatory courses and choosing three further options from a range of energy, and mechanical engineering specialist courses, including electrical power systems, heat exchangers and heat transfer, climate change, sustainability and adaptation, and demand management and energy storage.
In semester three, you’ll undertake an extensive and specialised investigation into your chosen area of renewable energy engineering through your dissertation. You’ll be required to demonstrate your mastery of the subject area by applying design and evaluation techniques to develop new insights and responses to current issues in energy and mechanical engineering industries.
Accreditation
This programme is accredited by Energy Institute (EI).
Students completing an EI accredited degree are deemed to have met part or all the academic requirements for registration as a Chartered or Incorporated Engineer and are in a strong position to move on to achieve professional engineering status after a period of initial professional development in industry.
Professionally accredited courses provide industry-wide recognition of the quality of your qualification.
Select a course option at the top of this page to view entry requirement information.
Choose a specific option to see funding information.
Course optionsPostgraduate scholarships and bursaries
We aim to encourage well-qualified, ambitious students to study with us and we offer a wide variety of scholarships and bursaries to achieve this. Over £6 million worth of opportunities are available in fee and stipend scholarships, and more than 400 students benefit from this support.
Email:studywithus@hw.ac.uk
Phone:0131 451 3729
Riccarton
Edinburgh
EH14 4AS
At Heriot-Watt University