Energy Engineering
For Penn State Undergraduate Students
Daniel A. Wells
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Table of Contents
Preface…………………………………………………………………………...Page 3
TedxTalk………………………………………………………………………...Page 4
NREL…………………………………………………………………………....Page 5
NIST……………………………………………………………………………..Page 6
EIA……………………………………………………………………………....Page 7
Energy.gov……………………………………………………………………....Page 8
PSU Websites…………………………………………………………………...Page 9
College of Earth and Mineral Sciences………………………………………....Page 9
Penn State Library……………………………………………………………....Page 10
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Preface
The purpose of this guide is to help potential Energy Engineers or students
potentially interested in Energy Engineering lighten their potential load within the
major with links from various sites which I believe are very helpful and have been
helpful to me as an Energy Engineer. Keep in mind that practically all science
majors are very difficult and tend to consume a lot of your life. Why not utilize
some the info found in this guide to lighten the load?
After the description for each link I’ve taken the liberty of looking for any links
that may be of interest such as internships and placing them after the description.
Also, it will be assumed that you have at least some knowledge of energy and
engineering, as there will not be any defining of terminology or concepts in detail
within this guide. The guide has pretty much been set up to first display general
websites that have relevance to energy engineering, and second will give sites in
the PSU domain.
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TED x Talk
Location: http://new.ted.com/
Description: Ted is a site in which professors and researchers give lectures on
various topics that they have researched. It is a very broad site that covers many
topics from science to philosophy just to give a little perspective of broadness. This
site has many lectures on energy, as far as alternative and renewable sources of
energy. There are also lectures on energy policies and the various effects of the
different energy sources on the earth. This site serves as a way to keep up with
concerns and what is being discussed in the energy world, but also serves to
broaden horizons on other topics besides that of energy. It is surprising what may
be used for research or could spark an idea from watching TedxTalk lectures.
Creating a free profile is also available, so that conversations with other scientists
or lecturers are made available.
Link(s) of interest:
http://www.ted.com/search?q=energy+
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NREL
Location: http://www.nrel.gov/
Description: NREL stands for National Renewable Energy Laboratory. This
website is a website for materials. It’s analyzes the materials used in building
renewable sources such as solar panels and the materials needed to build wind
turbines. From this site it can be seen how this laboratory collaborates with the
work industry to make affordable and efficient materials into the marketplace. The
lab also works with the government to track and monitor the uses of the equipment
deployed by the lab to also keep track of efficiency. There is access to a photo
voltaic watt meter calculator. Solar and wind maps are also made available. They
also integrate everything together. It is shown to the view how everything is put
together with detailed diagrams.
Link(s) of interest:
Energy Systems Integration
http://www.nrel.gov/esi/
Wind Maps
http://www.nrel.gov/gis/wind.html
Solar maps
http://www.nrel.gov/gis/solar.html
PV Watt Calclulator
http://pvwatts.nrel.gov/
Intership search
http://search.nrel.gov/query.html?qp=site%3Awww.nrel.gov+site%3Asam.nrel.go
v+site%3Aimages.nrel.gov+site%3Apvwatts.nrel.gov&style=nrel&qs=&qc=nrel&
ws=0&qm=0&st=1&nh=10&lk=1&rf=0&oq=&col=nrel&qt=interships+&x=0&y
=0
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NIST
Location: http://www.nist.gov/
Description: NIST, which stands for the National Institute of Standards and
Technology, is probably the best websites an engineer can use. It has covers many
subject areas from bioscience and health to transportation. Within these specific
subject areas they break it down even further to give you specific information on
the certain aspects of whatever topic being explored. It has a web book just for
chemical formulas. This web book also provides much information, such as
enthalpy polynomials, isothermal condition, and isobaric conditions among other
things dealing with molecular formulas. This site also provides current news in the
scientific community. This information stretches from new discoveries to new
research and research articles. They also have many products and services such as
their own research library, licensing and patents collaboration and partnerships just
to name a few.
Link(s) of interest:
Energy Portal
http://www.nist.gov/energy-portal.cfm
Web book
http://webbook.nist.gov/chemistry/
Internships
http://www.nist.gov/hrmd/staffing/internships.cfm
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EIA
Location: http://www.eia.gov/
Description: EIA is the U.S. Energy Information Administration. This website
primarily provides all data that is needed to know on energy, from coal to
renewable energy. This website gives analysis and projections of monthly and
yearly energy forecasts, analysis of energy topics and analysis of congressional
reports. This site also gives daily news in what is happening in the in the world of
energy. It shows energy policies and a map of trends by state and country. This
website is really useful if you want to keep up to date on current energy trends,
policy among other things.
Link(s) of interest:
Renewable and Alternative Fuels
http://www.eia.gov/renewable/
Consumption and Efficiency
http://www.eia.gov/consumption/
Total Energy
http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/
Internships
http://www.eia.gov/about/careers/internships.cfm
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Energy.gov
Location: http://www.energy.gov/
Description: This is the DoE’s (Department of Energy) website. This site is good
information on what is going on within the DoE. It talks about the new innovations
and discoveries that scientist and researchers. It keeps you up to date with daily
news on energy. This website also gives information on topics from public services
home to funding and financing. There is also information and tips specifically for
homeowners and business owners on how to save and use energy efficiently. This
site’s primary focus is information on what is going in the DoE and also
information for how citizens can utilize and use energy more efficiently.
Links of interest:
Energy Saver
http://www.energy.gov/energysaver/energy-saver
Financing and incentives search
http://www.energy.gov/search/site/incentives
Internships
http://energy.gov/student-programs-and-internships
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College of Earth and Mineral Sciences
Location: http://www.ems.psu.edu/
Description: For Energy Engineers, this is their college website. Here access to all
of the departments within the College of EMS, along with institutes and affiliates
of the College of EMS. There is daily new to what professors and researchers
within the college are doing, Discussions topics among other interesting stories
that show up on the news feed. There is also information on academic plans for all
of the different majors within the College of EMS. There is also access to all of the
faculty and staff that are in the College of EMS. All information for any major
with this college is here.
Link(s) of Interest:
Faculty and Staff
http://www.ems.psu.edu/faculty_staff
Research
http://www.ems.psu.edu/research
Recommended Academic Plan
http://www.ems.psu.edu/sites/default/files/u5/students/schedules/pdfs/ENENG.pdf
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Penn State Library
Location: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/home.html
Description: This website here can be very beneficial to anyone pursuing a degree
at Penn State. Books can be rented from here and picked up from any Penn State
location. Information for any course can be looked up and will have a course
description, prerequisites and the librarian(s) that could help you with books in that
course. This site also has a plethora of resource guides that will help any student
along the way with blogs and published works to reference. There is also access to
many databases for articles with in this major. There is also a place to search for
jobs, to analyze what they are doing and how much employees and management
are making. Lion Search probably makes everything run just a little more easily for
the student. Lion search searches for books in the library that can be check out, it
also has free PDF file that you can download for extra reading or even for a class.
Utilized the right way can definitely may a college experience a lot easier.
Links of interest:
Lion Search(energy engineering)
http://psu.summon.serialssolutions.com/search?s.q=energy+engineering+
Hoover’s
http://subscriber.hoovers.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/H/home/index.html
EMS Library
http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/emsl.html
Web of Knowledge
http://apps.webofknowledge.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/UA_GeneralSearch_in
put.do?product=UA&search_mode=GeneralSearch&SID=1FqWwdqBhjjb3yZ8eN
9&preferencesSaved
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