‘Learning how energy systems work is important right now, especially for the future’

Adrian Almeida, an International Finance student from Mexico, chose the minor Energy Governance at the Hanze University of Applied Sciences because he wanted to better understand the energy systems behind technologies like AI and data centres. During a gap year as a content moderator, he first became interested in AI.

'Back in Mexico I finished high school and then I took a gap year where I worked as a content moderator. In that job we used a lot of AI and that was when I first got interested in the topic.

Right now, the leading technology is AI. One of the ways to make AI work is that you need data centres. And the way that you make these data centres work is with energy. Currently you can read about it in every country in the world. There is always a big issue with energy. Either they do not have much of it or they have too much and do not know what to do with it. So, learning specifically about governance, how to manage it, how to transport it and how everything works is important right now, especially for the future.

Normally during the International Finance study you may learn how a data centre works financially, but you have no idea how it actually works. You only know the finances. Going in completely blind, I did not know anything about the topic.

But during the minor we learned about the main different sources of energy, the infrastructure that is used, how energy is sold between countries and companies and how to build a plant. The minor is very well made and the ethics that you learn are very important.

From the minor class only one person had a law background. And we all were able to manage the course and write the reports that were assigned to us. You do not need to know everything beforehand. It is good if you have the basics, but if not, it is fine. They teach a lot and the teachers are very patient. They understand that it is complicated.

We also had a field trip. We went to see a solar energy plant, and we spoke to the person who was running the place. He taught us about how it works, how much time it takes to make and the clients that they have. So, you get more insight into the business. It is interesting to get out of school and into the work field.

If somebody from Mexico asked me if they should do this minor, I would say yes. Mostly because of the way that the energy structure is organised in our country. When you go to Europe and learn about their system, you realise it is much better organised and cleaner. It opens your mind to different possibilities of how it can be improved.

My advice is to go in assuming you do not know much, because you probably do not. Pay attention and ask a lot of questions.’