Outreach is dedicated to helping industry, teachers, students as well as the general public understand energy and its impact on our everyday lives and environment. Whether you are looking for basic energy facts, educational tools and modules or a company interested in training program, one of our goals is to assist you.

Power Puzzle Videos
The Energy Institute introduces the topic of sustainable energy through original videos created in support of the FIRST LEGO League’s Power Puzzle. The first video, Energy Sources and Sustainability, asks “Where does our energy come from and how long will it last?” University students discuss the earth’s primary energy sources and introduce the concept of resource sustainability. The second video, Energy Conversion, Impacts, and Alternatives, asks “How do we use energy? What are the problems and alternatives?” University students explain how energy conversion creates useful energy as well as side-effects.

myPower - Educational Energy Simulation
Diversified involvement and increased public awareness are critical to developing a clean, efficient and affordable electricity system. MyPower is a hands on energy planning simulation that is accessible to executives and students alike.

Similar to a utility planner, participants must plan for the future of electric power and ensure that adequate generating capacity is available to reliably meet demand. Balancing reliability along with system costs and environmental constraints becomes challenging, and may require strategic investment in several technology alternatives including energy efficiency, pollution controls, and new power plant investment in coal, natural gas, renewable, or nuclear power. Technologies are built using real world costs and are realistically constrained by environmental, financial, and resource considerations. The result is a simulation which closely mimics our real world challenges.

myPower Instruction.pdf

open myPower simulation (Requires Shockwave Plugin)

The Personal Environmental Impact Calculator
Personal environmental impacts are often either not considered or are disregarded as inconsequential. The goal of this web site is to provide an easy way for individuals to get a perspective on some of the environmental impacts of their everyday activities, as well as to create an educational tool which can help individuals find ways to reduce their personal environmental impact. This calculator was developed by students at the UW-Madison College of Engineering.

Schools
The Energy Institute is is collaborating with various student groups such as Pi Tau Sigma and the American Nuclear Society to provide a classroom lectures aimed at improving the level of understanding that school-aged children (and K-12 teachers) have relative to future energy challenges. Materials are directed at comprehending the underlying science that governs these issues. To schedule an energy presentation at your school, please contact Nancy Ruggeri at nruggeri@wisc.edu.

Wisconsin Public Utility Institute
The Wisconsin Public Utility Institute provides information and education programs to the electricity, natural gas, and telecommunications industries. Its programs and services communicate the diversity of views that exist on current policy issues, particularly the leading-edge issues that will affect the future of those industries and the customers they serve.

The Midwest Rural Energy Council
The Midwest Rural Energy Council (MREC) is a 50+ year cooperative educational effort between electric utilities and land grant universities in the upper Midwest. The MREC provides educational programs to its members and the public on issues related to the safe and efficient use of energy on farms and in the food processing industry as well as distributed energy generation, transmission and distribution in rural areas.