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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Wind resources for renewable energies by École Polytechnique

3.6
stars
123 ratings

About the Course

The main goal of this course is to get the necessary knowledge on atmospheric and fluid dynamics in order to quantify the wind resource of a local or regional area. We’ll learn about basic meteorology, the specific dynamics of turbulent boundary layers and some standard techniques to estimate wind resources regardless of the type of turbine used or the level of efficiency achieved. Then, we will see what are the turbines characteristics to consider in order to estimate the electricity production from an isolated turbine or from a turbine farm. The differences and similarity between wind or marine resource assessment will also be discussed. Finally, you will have the opportunity to get hands-on experience with real in-situ data sets and apply what you have learned on wind resource assessment....

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1 - 25 of 51 Reviews for Wind resources for renewable energies

By Steve T

Jun 19, 2020

If there was a grade only for difficulty, this course would get at least 6 stars (out of 5). I'm a professional engineer with a Master's degree and this course takes some beating for technical difficulty. Of course, it's not impossible, but there's an assumption of a high degree of knowledge before you start. Do not attempt this courses unless you already have an understanding of calculus at an advanced undergradute level. The course materials skim quickly over the theory in the assumption that you already understand the mathematics. To make it even harder, there is no guidance whatsoever as to how to complete the assignments. You have to work it all out by yourself, which is no mean feat. The feedback tells you what you got wrong, but gives no clues as to how to get tothe correct answer. And just to make it interesting, I'm fairly sure there's a few errors in there too. It's challenging, one of the most challenging courses I've completed since graduating, but all in all, you have to learn and understand this course to pass. There are no short cuts.

You should also be able to use Matlab, Octave or a similar programming language (a few students noted they didn't have this knowledge and they were finding it impossible to proceed). An advanced excel user might just be able to make it,

One more thing, the time estimates are very ambitious. If you don't know the material already, it's probably going to take you a lot longer than they suggest.

In conclusion, if want to know this subject better go for it! But, if you're after an easy time, this is not the course for you.

By Erasmo I

Jul 21, 2019

The content of the course is very important and interesting. However, the videos are focused on an unnecessary and large theory, with any calculus examples, which makes it boring. The quizzes are not quite easy and the answers have so many tricks, and most of them are not clarified correctly on the videos, which causes frustration on the student. I would recommend to improve the videos and to think about renewing the quizzes with just one option to answer and more calculus problems.

The project was quite hard but very very interesting. It was the part that I enjoyed this course.

By Matthijs d K

Aug 25, 2017

Quiz questions and answers are quite badly formulated.

By Arturo L

Dec 2, 2019

No feedback, no correct answers in evaluations, wrong information in some slides....There is no coordinator who answer your questions. Absolutely a loss of time.

By Aleksandra V

Sep 21, 2019

All in all, I got quite a lot of information from the course. But as many other reviewers have already mentioned, the quiz questions are sometimes truly frustrating. No hints, no answers in the lectures, and no help in the forums, apart from the fellow students as annoyed as myself. All that made me end up simply trying out all possible combinations (and that with multiple ticks makes no less than 31 combinations - hi, combinatorics! - and 3 tries in 8 hours), which is clearly not the way I would like to spend my youth. Also there are some maths typos in the slides in some lectures that make it difficult to get into the subject, and I'm almost sure that some of the answers in one of the last quizzes are wrong - but no way to figure it out, since no feedback is provided anyway. So my resolution is that the contents of the course are quite good and well-organised for a motivated beginner, but the moderation is the aspect that should be looked upon for sure.

By Tame I

Feb 21, 2018

I wish the course wasn't concerned so much with the calculus, and focused more on the concepts. I regret paying for this course before going through week 2. Now I'm not interested at all in finishing it.

By Raul B

May 29, 2017

messs

By Walid H

May 22, 2018

It's very important and useful course in the wind arena but some of the required quizzes some how difficult specially the last one,I spent much of time where I could've take more extra courses at the same time as I was planning.I feel I gained lots of knowledge out of it due to the constructive lectures.By the way I worked very hard for this course,as you can see I passed 7 required quizzes out of 8,and in the 8th one I solved 3 Q. out of 4 and obtained already 75% on it so I still have one and only one question to finish the whole course.but as I know from the previous info.this last quiz worth only 15% out of the whole course.Its important for me to get a certificate for this course to keep up with the next courses that I plan to take at your gracious institute.for extra info.I'm an american graduate from the university of Toledo.I also finished one year of my pr.graduate at Ecol e Polytechnique in France too.I will keep working For the last question as I did.But I hope from my hard works and grades I could be entitled for the certificate of this course.

By ASAAH P

Mar 16, 2020

This course is very good.

But i will wish more clarity is given in the questions to make it more understandable as English might not be the first language of us all.

Again, i suggest more specific reference materials or sources be included. Also, as it is a place to learn some summarized hints on formulae and data information should be added. Especially after several failed attempts on quiz, there should be some guide on how to answer, just as in the WIND ENERGY course.

All the same, i have gained a lot from this course, even though i have not being able to answer only one question to get my certificate.

My appreciation to the Instructors and Coursera for the financial aid. Thank you.

By Arslan A U R

Apr 16, 2020

I am rating this course five star based on the skills I have got by completing the final project.

This course is very excellent if you want to learn about wind resource assessment.

But the quizzes in the course are quite tricky and requires effort and determination to complete.

The final project of this course requires a lot of time investment and you need to have a data analysis skills to complete it. You must know either python, R or MATLAB to complete the final project. But, I would say give it a try if you are interested in wind energy, it would worth your time and effort.

Have a nice time doing this course and I wish you good luck.

By Stefano C

Mar 13, 2021

A very well constructed course full of interesting contents. This course is quite complex, with an higher difficulty level respect to other courses I have attended.

The topic is quite wide and the course sections are planned to offer a comprehensive study of all the subjects involved from Energy and Meteorology concepts to atmospheric boundary layer laws and turbine power curve.

The final data assessment project has been very interesting to perform and it is definitely the highlight of this course which allows a better development of new skills with a quantitative approach.

By Sudheer R B

Jul 16, 2019

Very informative lessons and quite challenging tests. I liked the way they build up the complexity in analyzing the data. Some questions in the tests might seem extremely difficult but very fundamental. There are mistakes in a few questions like they pointed out in the discussion forum. Overall I had a good experience with this course.

By Kristina F

Sep 18, 2017

It's great course taught very well. I only wish we'd be allowed to take the quizzes for free as well, to be able to pass the course now and purchase it for the certificate later. Being a student it's financially hard times on anyone.

By Akpoviroro A

Dec 19, 2021

Difficulty level is at par with university curriculum. It took me a year to complete the week 4 exercises because it requires some level of computer programming. Now I have a broad understanding about wind energy and power.

By LIU Y

Jan 9, 2018

I have to say I learned a lot from this course, especially from the quizes after each section. Those quizes are not easy ones. They are challenging but rewarding.

By Vincent A

May 27, 2020

A quite challenging but very interesting course. I learned a lot about meteorology and winds.

Unfortunately, there are some issues with a few quizzes.

By Alberto R M

Mar 29, 2023

it´s very complete ad didactic!

Congratulation to the theacher that have participated in this course.

I have lernaed much!

By Luiz J d S J

Mar 6, 2022

Excellent course!! Thank you very much for the insights!!

By Jonathan A

Mar 3, 2021

Muy buen contenido, pero las pruebas son complicadas

By Benjamin C C

Oct 25, 2020

I loves the course, great!! B.C.C

By Guilherme d M L

Jun 29, 2019

The course is really interesting and the lectures and lecturers are great. It is insightful and provides basic knowledge mainly oriented to the assessment of wind power availability. If you seek a more turbine oriented approach (aerodynamics, turbine manufacturing and etc), this is not a good option. Great problem, in my opinion: evaluation system is very poor. Many items are not well formulated and it's hard to understand your mistakes after failing a test try. It became so uncomfortable that led me to only giving 3 stars. In summary, I would recommend this course to all who want a basic introduction to the field of wind energy. Take it up a as a listener and avoid a lot of stress.

By Shamistan A

Oct 24, 2021

Great and informative course! There are minor mistakes in the voice acting and tests (they are insignificant). The most important point of this course is exclusively for those who are already in this area or have good knowledge in this field (+ analysis and programming) since at the end of this course you will have independent work! If you have such knowledge and you are interested in this area then this course is for you!

By Cristina C

Mar 28, 2018

I found this course very interesting to gain insight into the fundamental concepts of wind analysis and resource assessment. I would like to get into further detail in some of the parts overviewed, I think a project-based quiz for each section could be helpful - although maybe too much work. I would recommend this course to everyone interested in the wind energy sector.

By Umair A S

Mar 10, 2018

The course is very extensive and gives a very deep insight into wind energy assessment but sometimes the data for the quizzes is not that clear. For example, for the wind resource assessment project the data should be given in an excel file rather than a .txt file as it created a lot of problem in analyzing the data.

By Lance W

Feb 25, 2019

This course was fantastic in that it was great getting your hands onto some actual data and applying the concepts.

However, many of the quizzes were very difficult and with having so many different combinations it was hard knowing where you were going wrong.