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January 21, 2015
E.J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University
Energy Sustainability and Policy
34:970:620 Cross Listed with 34:833:620 Energy Policy and Planning
Cross-listed with:
Integrated Energy Challenges and Opportunities-II (IECO-II), 16:335:502
Thursdays 9:50 to 12:30
Spring 2015
Classroom: Civic Square Building (CSB), Room 113
Instructor: Frank Felder, PhD
Instructor Contact Information
Civic Square Building, Room 249
Telephone: 848 932 2750
Email: [email protected]
http://www.policy.rutgers.edu/ceeep/
Office hours: Thurs 9-9:50 and 12:30-1:30 or by appointment
Course Objectives
Familiarize students with the major issues associated with sustainable energy policy and
planning and develop their abilities to conduct and assess energy related studies and their
economic, environmental and social implications. Students from all departments and
programs are welcome.
Course Description
Energy sustainability is a critical component of state, national and international public
policy and planning. Issues surrounding the reliability and security of energy supplies
directly affect national domestic and foreign policy, as well as environmental, economic
development and land use concerns. Moreover, the policies, strategies, and programs
adopted by both the public and private sectors will directly impact upon our lives as
professionals, members of a community, and our families. This graduate seminar will
examine energy sustainability and policy through a timely, critical and practical approach
designed to give students an insight into the factors that shape energy policy.
This class will be conducted as a mixture of lectures, classroom discussion, and individual
meetings with the instructor. Major topic areas include energy technologies, the nature and
operation of energy markets, environmental issues, energy planning, and the components of a
holistic energy policy.
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January 21, 2015
Required Video Lectures
Students will be required to view the following lectures available at
http://web.mit.edu/mitei/news/video.html
1. Meeting US Energy and Climate Challenges With Rational Policy, Severin
Borenstein
2. Whales to Wood, Wood to Coal/Oil— What's Next?, Daniel Nocera
3. Why Bad Things Happen to Good Technologies, John Sterman
4. Uncertainties in Climate Forecasts: Causes, Magnitudes and Policy Implications,
Stephen H. Schneider
Required and Recommended Readings
Required and recommended readings are either available on the internet or on the
course’s Sakai website https://sakai.rutgers.edu/portal
The primary text for the seminar is Sustainable Energy – without the hot air by David JC
MacKay (hereafter MacKay) available for free at:
http://www.withouthotair.com/download.html
Academic Integrity
All members of our community must be confident that each person's work has been
responsibly and honorably acquired, developed, and presented. Any effort to gain
advantage not given to all students is dishonest, whether or not the effort is successful. A
violation of academic honesty is a breach of trust, and will result in penalties, including
possible suspension or expulsion. When in doubt about plagiarism, paraphrasing,
quoting, or collaboration, consult the course instructors. Please see:
http://academicintegrity.rutgers.edu/students.shtml for further information.
Schedule of Classes and Assignments
NOTE: Students should answer questions listed below for each class meeting but do not
submit them.
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January 21, 2015
January 22
Class overview and introduction to energy policy and planning/discuss of recent drop in
oil prices and its implications
KEY WORD: OBJECTIVES
1. What are some different definitions of energy sustainability?
2. How is energy sustainability quantified and measured?
3. What are different objectives that energy policy and planning try to accomplish?
4. How are these various objectives measured and quantified?
5. What are the values underlying these objectives?
6. Can these different objectives be combined into a single objective? Why or why not?
7. What is the difference between a final objective and a means objective?
8. What is the difference between a substantive objective and process objective?
January 29
Energy Trends, Technologies and Implications, part 1
KEY WORD: SCALE
1. What is meant by scale?
2. Why is scale important in energy policy?
3. What does the term economies of scale mean? Why is it important in energy
planning and policy?
4. What are the major units of energy production/consumption?
a. What are the units for electricity?
b. What are the units for oil?
c. What are the units for natural gas?
d. What units are used for national energy amounts across all fuels?
5. Which units measure a stock versus a flow?
6. Why is the distinction between stocks and flows important?
7. What are energy flow diagrams?
8. What is the difference between wholesale energy and retail energy markets?
DUE:
1. READING Our Common Future (Brundtland Commission Report, 1983) Chapter 1,
Section 3 (Sustainable Development, paragraphs 27-30) and Chapter 7
2. READING MacKay: Part I. Numbers, Not Adjectives, Sections 1-2, pp. 1-28
3. WATCH Video #1
4. OPTIONAL: “Against Sustainability”, Ted Everett, video, first 50 minutes or so,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20Rr1HVOwGg
February 5
Energy Trends, Technologies and Implications, part 2
KEY WORD: UNITS
1. How do you convert from one unit to another?
2. What are the units for oil, natural gas, electricity, and coal?
3. How many barrels of oil does the world use a day? The U.S.?
4. What percentage of the U.S.’s electricity comes from coal, natural gas, nuclear,
hydro, and renewables?
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January 21, 2015
5. How much carbon dioxide does the world release a year?
6. What is the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere?
7. What is the annual growth rate in energy demand for the U.S. and China?
DUE:
5. READING MacKay: Part I. Numbers, Not Adjectives, Sections 1-10, pp. 29-67
6. WATCH Video #2
7. REVIEW MIT Energy Conversion list on Sakai
8. MEMO #1: Write 800 word memo to the next President of the United States making
your recommendations on the objectives that his/her administration should use in the
evaluation of energy policy. Use a memo format and make sure it is written clearly,
concisely, and with no grammatical errors.
February 12
Energy Trends, Technologies and Implications, part 3
KEY WORD: TECHNOLOGIES
1. What are the major fuel sources that the world uses?
2. Which fuel sources are used for which energy uses and sectors (electricity,
transportation, heating, residential, commercial, industrial)?
3. What is an energy flow diagram
4. Which technologies can be used to make electricity?
5. What are the pro’s and con’s of each of the technologies that make electricity?
6. What is meant by the statement that electricity is an energy carrier not an energy
source?
7. What is geoengineering and what are several examples?
DUE:
9. READING MacKay: Part I. Numbers, Not Adjectives, Sections 1-10, pp. 68-112
10. READING Felder and Haut Balancing Energy Alternatives on Sakai
11. ENERGY LOG: Submit DRAFT energy log of your direct use of energy. Your log
should be legible, self-explanatory, define all abbreviations, provide key formulas and
assumptions, and contain references/explanations for each assumption.
February 19
Energy Analysis, part 1
KEY WORD: SYSTEMS
1. What is a definition of a system?
2. Why is the concept of systems important in energy policy and planning?
3. What are examples of energy systems?
4. What is feedback?
5. What does time step or time scale mean?
6. Why is the definition of system boundary important for energy planning and policy?
What is an example?
7. How do stocks and flow interact in a system? What is an example?
DUE:
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January 21, 2015
12. READING MacKay: Part II. Making a Difference, Sections 19-24, pp. 68-176
13. WATCH Video #3
14. One hour in-class quiz on energy technological fundamentals.
February 26
Energy Analysis, part 2
KEY WORD: UNCERTAINTIES
1. What are the major uncertainties associated with energy policy and planning?
2. What are the various analytical tools that can be used to address uncertainty in energy
planning and policy?
3. How can energy policies and plans address uncertainty?
DUE:
15. READING MacKay: Part II. Making a Difference, Sections 25-32, pp. 177-250
16. WATCH Video #4
17. ENERGY LOG: Submit final energy log of your direct use of energy and costs
March 5
Climate Change I
KEY WORD: SCIENCE
1. What is greenhouse effect?
2. What are the categories of evidence that supports climate change?
3. What evidence questions or contradicts climate change?
4. What is the role of models in analyzing climate change?
DUE:
18. QUIZ 30 minute in-class quiz on energy fundamentals
19. READING John Holdren, Meeting the Climate Change Challenge, available on Sakai
20. READING IPCC Technical Summary on Sakai, Chapters 1-6
March 12 – NO CLASS
Climate Change II
KEY WORD: EQUITY
1. How can equity be measured in the context of energy policy and planning?
2. How is the quantification of greenhouse gases by country versus by person used to
advance equity claims?
3. Which countries and regions of the world are most likely to be the most adversely
affected by climate change and how does that affect discussions about equity?
DUE:
21. READING IPCC Technical Summary on Sakai, Chapters 7-14
22. Robert Pindyck, “Climate Change Policy: What Do the Models Tell Us?”, Journal of
Economic Literature 2013, 51(3), 860-872
March 26
Energy Economics and Markets I
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January 21, 2015
KEY WORD: ECONOMICS
DUE:
23. READING Executive Summary of Nicolas Stern’s report on Sakai
24. MEMO #2: Submit 1200 word memo on uncertainty in energy policies and plans.
As an energy policy and planning analyst, what are the major uncertainties in energy
policy and planning and how should they be addressed in energy policies and plans?
April 2
Nuclear Power Plant Field Trip (details to be provided in class several weeks prior to the
trip). We will leave around 6:45 am and return to campus approximately at 1 pm.
KEY WORD: INFRASTRUCTURE
1.
What is meant by energy density?
2.
How much electricity does the world generation from nuclear power?
3.
How much electricity does the U.S. generation from nuclear power?
4.
What are the major pro’s and con’s of nuclear power?
5.
What are the implications of capital intensive sources of electricity such as
nuclear power?
6.
How does a nuclear power plant work?
7.
What is the different between fission and fusion?
April 9
Energy Economics and Markets II
KEY WORD: EFFICIENCY
1. How does engineering efficiency differ from economic efficiency?
2. What do supply and demand curves look like on a graph?
3. What is a negative externality? What are several examples in the context of energy
policy and planning?
4. What is a positive externality and what is an example in the context of energy policy
and planning?
5. What is the difference between private and social costs?
6. What is a market failure?
7. What is the difference between economic efficiency and equity?
8. How does cap and trade work?
9. Why do economists emphasize putting a price on greenhouse gases and what are the
two major ways to do that?
10. How does a renewable portfolio standard work?
DUE:
25. READ Felder paper on price suppression available on Sakai
26. READ Felder and Loxley paper on solar vertical demand curve available on Sakai
27. READ Felder paper on energy accidents available on Sakai
April 16
Case Study #1: Keystone Pipeline. More details including readings will be provided in
advance of this class.
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January 21, 2015
April 23
Case Study #2: Shale Oil and Natural Gas. More details including readings will be
provided in advance of this class.
April 30
FINAL EXAM Three hour, in class exam. See below for more information.
Grading
Energy Log (20%)
A 1-2 page summary of your direct energy usage over a one week period of time.
The log should be organized, clear, contain appropriate units, and all calculations should
be transparent and supported with references and key assumptions. Students will submit
a draft energy log and then a final one. Comments will be provided on the draft log but
only the final log will be graded.
Quiz on Energy Fundamentals (10%)
Memos (2 memos, 10% each for a total of 20%)
Each memo should be in professional memo format, carefully written without any
grammatical errors, direct, to the point, and key points supported with data and solid
reasoning. Late memos will not be accepted. Memos must be handed in at the start of
class (no emails or electronic copies).
Case Studies (10% each for a total of 20%)
More details will be provided as the date approaches.
Final Exam (25%)
Cumulative exam based upon the readings, lectures and class discussions.
Questions listed in the syllabus are a good starting point for preparing for the exam.
Class Participation and Attendance (5%)
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