Students are introduced to the principles of sustainable management and the fundamentals of life cycle assessment. The content of this module provides the foundation for subsequent technology-orientated courses. The module is structured so that lectures alternate with seminars and group work. Essential learning content is developed by the students themselves in workshops or presentations.

Teaching areas of the module:

• Fundamentals of sustainable energy management
• Fundamentals of sustainable economics
• Resource economics
• Climate change
• Life cycle assessment
• Energy storage
• Transport and distribution of electricity
• Electricity market modelling
• Markets and grids in the electricity sector

The SENCE Master's programme is essentially structured as a scientific project-study programme and thus reflects today's real working conditions in a special way.
The complexity of products and services is continuously increasing, making interdisciplinary knowledge and collaboration essential for maintaining competitiveness. Traditional hierarchical management structures are increasingly being replaced by flat, project-based – i.e., problem-orientated – structures.
As a result, project management has established itself as an effective tool for handling complex processes in many organisations. The "Project Management" module provides an introduction to this discipline and is designed to raise basic awareness of this multifaceted discipline.
The module is designed for future project managers as well as project team members. It also focuses on scientific working techniques. The seminar consists of lecture blocks and exercises.
In this area, students are asked to organise project management in small groups using examples.

Teaching areas of the module:

• Development of project management
• Characteristics and objectives of projects
• Creativity management, project selection
• The project manager and the project team
• Communication and conflict management
• Project organisation, planning, scheduling, and cost control
• Team and project management
• Introduction to scientific work and publishing

This module provides knowledge about the fundamentals of individual energy sources.
Students also learn about the plant technology used to generate large amounts of energy. This includes power plants for generating large amounts of electricity as well as heating plants for supplying larger properties and local heating networks.

Teaching areas of the module:

• Thermodynamics
• Fuel cell
• Wind power
• Hydropower
• Biogas engine
• Wood-fired power plants
• Emission values and flue gas cleaning
• CHP
• Biogas
• Thermal conversion of solid biomass

This unit provides students with specialised knowledge about systems for energy conversion in the domestic sector. The areas of technology, potential, cost-effectiveness and funding are covered.

Teaching areas of the module:

• Building efficiency / building standards [EnEV]
• Electrical engineering and MSR
• Basics of building technology
• Municipal energy management
• Geothermal energy / heat pump
• Solar thermal energy
• Photovoltaics

The module links the knowledge generated so far in the degree programme to all areas of renewable energy supply and provision. The cross-sectional knowledge acquired through the large number of projects in the 2nd semester is made available to all students in the form of a presentation and in preparation for an oral examination.

Module 3.2 teaches simulation theory and mathematical modelling for the application areas of renewable energy systems, radiation meteorology, and buildings.
Firstly, the basic structures of simulation systems are presented. Then, analytical and numerical solution methods are discussed, along with their limitations and potentials.
In addition to the theoretical parts, students deal with the simulation systems in practice and independently develop a simulation-based solution to a scientific engineering problem.

Entrepreneurial thinking and action are at the centre of the seminar. The basics for mastering management tasks or your own entrepreneurial activities are developed and intensified. This builds on the knowledge acquired in the first semester.

Contents of the seminar are:

• Business start-up
• Corporate law
• Company forms
• Balance sheets

At the end of the seminar, the students draft a business plan in the form of a seminar paper.
 

Students are taught the skills required to formulate a research proposal.
This is done using the example of a research proposal according to the guidelines of the German Research Foundation.

Contents of this seminar are:

• Methodological structure of a research proposal
• Identifying funding opportunities (policy and law)
• Preparation of a research proposal
• Communication of the research proposal