Curriculum
Our interdisciplinary program is open to students in nearly any UW–Madison graduate degree program. Through classes, team projects, and extracurricular opportunities, students will engage with technical, economic, political, and social factors that shape energy policy formulation and decision-making. We examine current topics in energy resources, energy market structures and practices, traditional public utilities, energy technology, energy and environmental linkages, energy and environmental policy, and energy services. The curriculum acquaints students with relevant skills, including: quantitative analysis of energy issues, technology assessment, life-cycle analysis, business analysis, and environmental quality assessment.
EAP is not available as a stand-alone graduate degree. If students want an education focused only on EAP classes, the Nelson Institute’s Environment and Resources (MS or PhD) program provides complete curriculum overlap with the EAP certificate.
ELIGIBILITY
EAP welcomes applications from students in any graduate degree program at UW–Madison that allows students to pursue a certificate. Students may apply to the EAP program concurrently with their graduate school application or once they have matriculated at UW–Madison. Acceptance into EAP is contingent on enrollment in a graduate degree program.
While there are no prerequisites to the program, it is recommended that EAP applicants have completed at least one college-level course in each of the following five subject areas: physical science (physics or chemistry); natural science (biology, environmental, geology or atmospheric and oceanic); economics; social sciences or humanities (besides economics); and calculus or statistics.
For more information, contact program coordinator Scott Williams. Students accepted into the program should receive email notification within 3 weeks of the receipt of their completed application.
REQUIREMENTS
The certificate is open to both Master’s and doctoral students. PhD students may use the EAP certificate to fulfill their doctoral breadth requirement (equivalent to a doctoral minor), though in this case courses may not be double-counted for major requirements. Master’s students and PhD students who are not using the certificate to fulfill their doctoral breadth requirement may choose courses that overlap with their major requirements.
If you have questions on which option is more appropriate for your situation, please contact the EAP program coordinator.
You may also find much of this information on the UW–Madison Guide website.
Required Course:
Students in this course are introduced to the units, language and methodologies essential for analysis of energy issues. 809 also provides an opportunity to form a cohort with other EAP students, especially those who are outside of the student’s primary discipline. It is strongly recommended, though not required, that EAP students take this course before other EAP courses.
The goal of this seminar is to bring together EAP students, faculty, and industry professionals to discuss professional skills in energy analysis and policy and facilitate networking between students and industry.
Courses in the Energy Analysis category involve quantitative analysis of the technical and economic factors that shape society’s use of energy resources.
Regularly offered courses in this category (and semester typically offered, though):
* EB=Economics and Business, TR=Technology and Resources, HE=Health and Environment
- A A E/ECON 371 – Energy, Resources and Economics (Fall)EB
- A A E/ENVIR ST/POP HLTH/PUB AFFR 881 – Benefit-Cost Analysis (Fall)EB
- AGROECOL/AGRONOMY/ENVIR ST 724 – Agroecosystems and Global Change (Fall)TR
- ENVIR ST/A A E/ECON/URB R PL 671 – Energy Economics (infrequently offered)EB
- BSE 460 – Biorefining: Energy and Products from Renewable Resources (Spring)TR
- CBE 512 – Energy Technologies and Sustainability (Fall,Spring)TR
- CBE 538 – Processes for the Production of Renewable Fuels and Chemicals from Biomass (Fall)TR
- CIV ENGR/G L E 421 – Environmental Sustainability Engineering (Fall)HE
- CIV ENGR 423 – Air Pollution Effects, Measurements and Control (Spring)HE
- CIV ENGR 495 – Sustainable Building and Materials (Spring)TR
- CIV ENGR 525 – Case Studies Exploring Infrastructure Sustainability and Climate Change (Fall)TR
- CIV ENGR 535 – Wind Energy Balance-of-Plant Design (Occasionally)TR
- CIV ENGR 729 – Environmental Sustainability Tools (Summer)HE
- E C E 356 – Electric Power Processing for Alternative Energy Systems (infrequently offered)TR
- E C E 427 – Electric Power Systems (Fall)TR
- E C E 714 – Utility Application of Power Electronics (Occasionally/Fall)TR
- E C E 723 – On-Line Control of Power Systems (Spring)TR
- ENVIR ST/BSE 367 – Renewable Energy Systems (Fall, Spring, Summer)TR
- E P D 731 – Energy Efficiency in Buildings (Fall)TR
- GEOSCI/ENVIR ST 411 – Energy Resources (Fall, Summer)TR
- M E 461 – Thermal Systems Modeling (Spring)TR
- M E 469 – Internal Combustion Engines (Fall)TR
- M E 472 – Energy, Sustainability, and Technology (Spring)TR
- M E/N E 565 – Power Plant Technology (Fall)TR
- M E/CBE 567 – Solar Energy Technology (Fall)TR
- N E 571 – Economic and Environmental Aspects of Nuclear Energy (Spring)TR
Other courses may qualify. See Course Offerings below for lists of approved courses from the most recent semesters.
Courses in the Energy Policy category involve the social, political, and environmental factors that underlie decision-making around energy choices.
Regularly offered courses in this category (and semester typically offered):
* EB=Economics and Business, P=Policy, HE=Health and Environment
- ENVIR ST/GEOG 333 – Green Urbanism (Spring)P
- ENVIR ST 349 – Climate Change Governance (Fall,Spring)P
- ENVIR ST/ATM OCN 355 – Introduction to Air Quality (Fall,Spring)HE
- ENVIR ST/GEOG 439 – US Environmental Policy and Regulation (Fall)P
- ENVIR ST/POP HLTH 471 – Introduction to Environmental Health (Spring)HE
- ENVIR ST/POP HLTH 502 – Air Pollution and Human Health (Fall)HE
- ENVIR ST/A A E/CIV ENGR/URB R PL 561 – Energy Markets (Spring)P, EB
- ENVIR ST/POP HLTH 739 – Climate Change, Human and Planetary Health (Spring)HE
- *2 credits – must be combined with a 1-credit course in consultation with certificate coordinator
- ENVIR ST/POLI SCI/PUB AFFR 866 – Global Environmental Governance (Spring)P
- GEOG/ENVIR ST 331 – Energy Justice (Spring)P
- LAW 848 – Introduction to Environmental Law (Occasionally)P
- M H R 710 – Challenges & Solutions in Business Sustainability (Spring)EB
- URB R PL 551 – Climate Action Planning: Sustainable Transportation (Spring)P
Other courses may qualify. See Course Offerings below for lists of approved courses from the most recent semesters.
Required Course:
Under the supervision of an EAP Faculty mentor, EAP students form teams and choose an energy-related project meeting the following criteria:
- There must be a “real-life” client (e.g. a non-profit organization, company, or public institution)
- The quality of the analysis satisfies the supervising faculty member
- The students present their analysis to this client
Because the scheduling of the courses listed above is coordinated with the needs of their home departments, EAP cannot guarantee that specific courses will always be offered at specific times or rotations. Each semester, the EAP Academic Coordinator will distribute a list of qualifying courses for the upcoming semester to students in the EAP program. This may also include courses not in the current curriculum that are good candidates for a course substitution.
Below are example qualifying course lists from recent semesters:
- Spring 2026 Courses
- Summer and Fall 2025 Courses
- Spring 2025 Courses
- Summer and Fall 2024 Courses
- Spring 2024 Courses
- Summer and Fall 2023 Courses
- Spring 2023 Courses
- Summer and Fall 2022 Courses
- Spring 2022 Courses
- Summer and Fall 2021 Courses
- Spring 2021 Courses
- Summer and Fall 2020 EAP Courses
- Spring 2020 Courses
Students may propose course substitutions by contacting the Academic Coordinator or the Faculty Chair. The EAP Chair makes the final decision. Students should provide a course syllabus, a brief justification statement, and a letter of endorsement from the faculty member teaching the course, preferably before the start of the course. The substitution proposal will be considered based upon the following criteria:
- the extent to which the course content is devoted to energy
- the rigor of methodology applied to the course material
- the context of the class with respect to the student’s study plan
The same process applies for students who wish to substitute a course in the Energy Analysis category for the Energy Policy category, and vice versa.
Transfer of Graduate Work from Other Institutions or Prior Undergraduate Coursework
The EAP program allows students to count no more than 2 graduate classes from other institutions towards completion of the EAP curriculum. Courses taken as an undergraduate cannot be used towards the EAP program, with one exception: EAP will accept 1 course taken as an undergraduate at UW–Madison if the student’s home department also accepts that course toward fulfillment of minimum graduate degree requirements.
Students should refer to their home department’s Handbook for specific information that pertains to course transfers towards their graduate program. The Graduate School policies on prior coursework are available at: https://grad.wisc.edu/documents/prior-coursework/
Upon admission to the program, students will receive a link to fill out an online study plan document. Copies of the blank study plan form can be downloaded from here:
The EAP program is part of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, partnered with the Wisconsin Energy Institute