As part of a Master’s Degree in Professional Studies, this course emphasizes real-world application. To support this, we introduce the project within the first few weeks so you can immediately begin applying course concepts to a real-world problem—ideally one relevant to your current or future profession or simply of strong interest. Either way, you’ll learn with an eye toward how market structure and financial principles affect your chosen project.
The project’s purpose is to let you define an important or interesting problem and explore how the dynamic regulatory and market landscape influences outcomes. You won’t be penalized for choosing a project that’s too ambitious or too modest; discovering that is part of the learning process. The course design allows for adjustments if needed. You have significant agency in shaping your learning, but your instructor and cohort are here to help if the lack of strict “guardrails” feels challenging.
The energy transition is highly dynamic at this point, so flexibility mirrors the industry we're studying.
The project will be defined as such:
Investigate an energy project that you, as a developer or corporate decision maker, would like to construct or replace. Your work will include:
- Developing a full financial model to inform investment decisions and test scenarios
- Creating a complete stakeholder register
- Reviewing how governmental policy affects your project
The project is worth 700 points, divided as shown below.
| Task number | Task | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Project Charter and Stakeholder Register | 75 |
| 2 | Development of Revenue Time Series | 50 |
| 3 | Development of Operating Expense Time Series | 50 |
| 4 | Development of Capital Costs | 50 |
| 5 | Development of Financial Metrics | 50 |
| 6 | Program Excel Financial Model | 50 |
| 7 | Development of Risk Management Measures | 50 |
| 8 | Development of Policy Sensitivities | 50 |
| 9 | Development of Electricity Market Sensitivities | 50 |
| 10 | Development of Fossil Fuel Market Sensitivities | 50 |
| 11 | Non-Financial Costs and Benefits | 75 |
| 12 | Final Presentation of Results | 100 |
| Total | -- | 700 |
Each of the tasks will require some quantification to ultimately assess the financial value of your project, but there will also be a required write-up of the derivation of your values. Instructions on requirements will be provided in each module.
Here is an EME 801 Project presentation from December 2023 by former RESS student Kelli Volkomer. This is an example of an excellent project. It is just an example. Please use your best method of presentation and definitely deliver your assignments in your own "voice." A huge part of professional learning is finding the ways that the professional communicates best. This course is intended to be a laboratory for that as well teaching you a whole lot about energy finance and energy markets...
Even more exciting than this banger of a presentation is the fact that this project was actually built, and is producing energy as of November 2025. Please listen to my interview with Kelli to understand how this got done as well as how EME801 was helpful to her along the way.
Please watch the following video:
Commercial Carport & Rooftop Photovoltaic Project by Kelli Volkomer. (33 min. 07 sec.)
Once the video begins to play, you can access the transcript for this video by choosing the transcript icon, to the right of the magnifying glass icon, in the upper right corner of the video player.
Below is a recorded interview between Kelli and your instructor.
Please watch the following video (19 min. 24 sec.)
Again, once the video begins to play, you can access the transcript for this video by choosing the transcript icon, to the right of the magnifying glass icon, in the upper right corner of the video player.