State-of-the-art of Education on Solar Energy in Urban Planning Part I: Approaches and Methods in Education

A part of IEA SHC Task 51, this report focuses on education in order to strengthen the knowledge and competence of relevant stakeholders in solar energy in urban planning. The core of this study is to create substantial links between ‘research and education’ as well as between ‘research and practice’. Knowledge gaps in current education were investigated, reasons for these gaps were identified and solutions and strategies are proposed to overcome these shortcomings. The aim of this part of the research project is to inform students as well as urban planners and professionals within the field of urban planning about the current offer of relevant courses at universities and in continuing professional development (CPD) programs. The modus operandi of evaluating existing courses dealing with the topic of solar energy and existing CPD programs was based on general online research by nine participating countries, followed by a questionnaire and survey. After identifying and analysing these programs, interviews with various educators with different levels of experience were conducted in order to further investigate the individual approaches of the applied methods behind teaching solar energy in urban planning. The evaluation of the survey showed that solar energy as it relates to urban planning was rarely part of the curriculum at universities. The identified courses are instead mostly offered in other disciplines. The identified CPD programs generally dealt with key aspects, such as climate change, and not specifically with solar energy in urban planning. The gaps and barriers in existing courses and pedagogy that are identified in this study provide knowledge that can be implemented in relevant seminars, lectures and tools for educating the next generation of architects, urban planners and specialist planners.