Better climate understanding can improve energy planning

Extreme weather events are affecting the supply of just about every kind of energy – wind, solar, nuclear, hydropower, biomass and more – to the point where they’re putting some types of energy production at risk.

The master’s-level class introduced this past spring aims to give students the skills to address these challenges. Offered as a core course, it was created at the request of the Environmental Sciences and Engineering department and forms part of EPFL’s efforts to expand its teaching on sustainability.

“Energy planning is all about finding sustainable solutions,” says Jérôme Chappellaz, a climate expert who’s also a full professor at EPFL. “This class teaches students how to do that while taking into account political issues and climate uncertainty.” He designed and taught the course together with Jonas Schnidrig, an energy expert and researcher at HES-SO Valais-Wallis. Julia Schmale, an EPFL tenure-track assistant professor specialized in extreme climates, also had a hand in developing the course.

An original teaching approach

The first cohort of students appreciated the professors’ original approach. For instance, students were asked to fill out a survey on popular beliefs about climate issues, calculate the energy use of the Simpsons household and play a board game based on making Switzerland carbon-neutral by 2050. Of course, the students were also assessed along the way to ensure they had acquired the necessary skills. “We had the students complete exercises at each step so we could confirm that they’d properly grasped the material,” says Schnidrig. “And, as a learning experience, we had them read articles conveying the views of climate sceptics,” adds Chappellaz. “That showed them how important it is to avoid alarmist and exaggerated statements, for example, and instead stick to the facts.”

The professors’ teaching methods proved to be effective. Master’s student Romain Wacongne says: “I was surprised by the oral exam and the semester project. I found the project pretty interesting. It was a change from the standard written assignment – I liked it better.” Fellow student Chloé Bouchiat says: “The professors were really focused on making sure we learned the key takeaways, not just on grading our exams.”

No one-size-fits-all solution

Among the various skills taught in the class, an especially important one is managing uncertainty. Chappellaz notes that, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, there are still many unknowns in scientists’ forecasts of the amount of extreme precipitation by century-end and the frequency of cold snaps that could freeze up power plants. These are factors that engineers will need to incorporate into their work. “We’re teaching students to plan for energy-system resilience in terms of not just government policies but also climate uncertainty,” says Schnidrig.

The main message that the professors want to convey is simple: there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for energy. And the first cohort of students seems to have taken that on board. “Today’s climate is the consequence of the energy systems used in the past, and tomorrow’s climate will determine the energy systems we use in the future,” says master’s student Alexandra Knoblauch. “That’s what this class helped me understand.” She plans to pursue a career in sustainability and climate-change adaptation.

Guest speakers and field trips

The class also stands out for its unique guest speakers. Both a volcanologist and a nuclear energy expert spoke to students about the climate risks associated with solar and nuclear power, illustrating their points with concrete examples. “This kind of opportunity is fairly rare at EPFL,” says Bouchiat, who believes these talks were valuable.

The semester ended with a field trip to the Toules dam in Valais Canton and a presentation given by local power utility Romande Energie. This dam is particularly challenging to operate: sitting at an altitude of 1,800 meters, it’s the only hydropower plant in the world with a solar-power generation facility floating on its reservoir. In fact, the students’ trip – initially scheduled for 18 April 2025 – had to be postponed because a severe snowstorm blocked access to the site. “A first-hand case study!” say Chappellaz and Schnidrig.

Looking ahead to next year

While this year’s course focused on energy issues related to Switzerland’s weather, next year the goal will be to examine these issues from an international perspective. “The social risks to consider vary from one region to the next,” says Schnidrig. “We plan to explore energy-system dependency in both Europe and elsewhere in the world.” The professors also intend to improve the class, such as by reducing the overlap with material taught in other classes and discussing the symbiotic relationship between energy and the climate a little more in each lecture.