51 - 60 of 62 results for: CSI::energy-environment

This course will look at ongoing and upcoming innovation in cars, driving, and mobility from three perspectives: (1) technology, (2) economics & business models, and (3) policy. We'll survey changes in powering vehicles (e.g. electrification and biofuels), in-vehicle connectivity and communications, and most especially changes in autonomy and self-driving vehicles. We'll examine at changes in the economics of cars, vehicles, and driving new business models, shared ownership, mobility as a service, as well as who some of the major players are in this nascent field and what they are doing/developing. And we'll explore the interactions of technology and economics with policy and broader societal changes direct effects like safety, legal liability, and who can drive; indirect effects on traffic, insurance, infrastructure needs, fuel taxes, and the environment; as well as longer-term and even bigger changes in daily life and where and how we live, work, and drive. The class is structured a bit like a large seminar. At the beginning of the quarter each student will, with the instructor, choose a topic to research. The student will interview experts on that topic and then write a memo. Most of our class sessions will be dedicated to discussing the memos written by you and your peers.

This seminar offers an introduction to International Environmental Law, with a strong emphasis on oceans and climate change, its underlying principles, how it is developed and implemented, and the challenges of enforcing it. We will focus on oceans and climate change, exploring the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention (UNCLOS) and the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC). We will explain why these agreements are described as ¿umbrella conventions¿ and how new conventions like the Paris Agreement fit within them. There will be guest speakers, a negotiation simulation, and a legal design sprint focused on re-imagining International Environmental Law.

Federal environmental laws, regulatory structures. and environmental policies. The property law roots of environmental law and current primary analytical frameworks of use in understanding environmental law and policy. Federal statutes including the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, Superfund (CERCLA), and the Resource Recovery and Conservation Act. Case studies from environmental cases and controversies.

The supply of a safe, reliable, low-cost and clean energy for the United States is a key determinant of current and future prosperity. It is also the most important element of both state and federal decarbonization efforts. Electric utilities are also among the most heavily regulated of large firms. This statutory and regulatory framework is composed of a complex patchwork of overlapping state and federal rules that is constantly evolving to meet emerging challenges. In this course, students will acquire a basic understanding of the law of rate-based regulation of utilities. We will then examine the history of natural gas pipeline regulation in the United States, concluding with the introduction of market competition into US natural gas markets and the advent of shale gas. Next, we will cover the basics of the electricity system, including consumer demand, grid operations, power plant technologies and electricity sector economics. We will then revisit cost of service rate regulation as it has been applied in the electricity context. Next, we will examine reform of both rate-regulated and wholesale market-based structures, focusing on various attempts to introduce market competition into specific segments of the industry. Finally, students will examine various approaches to subsidization of utility scale renewable energy and the growth and compensation of distributed energy resources. Throughout, the course will focus on the sometimes cooperative, sometimes competing, but ever evolving federal and state roles in regulating the supply of electric power as a unique example of cooperative federalism. Students will write two 1000-word response papers during the quarter in addition to taking a final exam (composed of two 1000-word essays). Elements used in grading: Class participation (20%), written assignments (40%), and final exam (40%).

Freshwater is our most crucial natural resource, but it is facing mounting pressures from climate change and other factors. While public agencies traditionally dominated water management, private water companies are playing an increasingly important (and sometime controversial) role. In many cases, private companies are making critical contributions to meeting societal water needs (e.g., by developing new technologies and finding new ways to reduce water use). In other cases, however, the involvement of private companies has proven controversial (e.g., when private companies have taken over public water supply systems in developing countries such as Bolivia). This course will look at established and emerging businesses in the water sector and the legal, economic, and social issues generated by the private sector's involvement. These businesses include water technology companies (e.g., companies commercializing new desalination or water recycling technologies), venture capitalists, water funds (that directly buy and sell water rights), consulting firms, innovative agricultural companies, and large corporations (that increasingly are adopting corporate stewardship programs). The course will begin with two weeks of introduction to water and the private water sector. After that, each class will focus on a different water company. Company executives will attend each class session and discuss their business with the class. In most classes, we will examine (1) the viability and efficacy of the company's business plan, (2) the legal and/or social issues arising from the business' work, and (3) how the business might contribute to improved water management and policy. Each student will be expected to write (1) two short reflection papers on businesses that visit the class, and (2) a 10- to15-page paper at the conclusion of the class on an idea that the student has for a new water company, on an existing water company of the student's choice, or on a legal or policy initiative that can improve the role that business plays in improving water management (either in a particular sector or more generally). This course is open to graduate students from around the campus. Elements used in grading: Attendance, Class Participation, Written Assignments, Final Paper. Cross-listed with Civil & Environmental Engineering ( CEE 273B).

(Formerly Law 774) This case study-oriented course will focus on the critical skills needed to evaluate, develop, finance (on a non-recourse basis), and complete grid-scale clean energy projects. This course will be essentially the same as in the past four years (when it was cross-listed as GSB GEN 335). This course is highly multi-disciplinary, both in terms of substance and student mix. The course has consistently had a significant mix of business, engineering, law and earth science students. As in the past, the course will focus on the issues associated with the business of developing, financing, constructing and operating grid-scale clean energy projects. The course will focus on what a project developer or lender (i.e., in either case, the business person) needs to know to develop and finance successful projects. The project development business--far more than many other businesses such as tech, manufacturing, consumer, services, retail or transportation--inherently involves a VERY long list of highly-germane and critical legal issues. We address the legal issues from the perspective of what a business person needs to understand in order to navigate them and complete a project. The primary course materials will be documents from several representative projects -- e.g., solar, wind, storage, carbon capture, transmission, combined heat & power -- covering key areas including market and feasibility studies, environmental permitting and regulatory decisions, financial disclosure from bank and bond transactions, and construction, input, and offtake contracts. For virtually every clean energy project, legal documents and financial/business models tend to highly customized. By examining actual projects and transactions we can learn how developers, financiers, and lawyers work to get deals over the finish line--deals that meet the demands of the market, the requirements of the law, and (sometimes) broader societal goals, in particular climate change, economic competitiveness, and energy security. Elements used in grading: Class Participation (35 %), Lecture-based Assignment (15 %), Group Project (50 %). Absences affect grade. This class is limited to 36 students, with an effort made to have students from SLS, GSB, engineering and earth sciences. (All students need to be graduate students.) CONSENT APPLICATION: To apply for this course, students must complete and submit a Consent Application Form available on the SLS website (Click Courses at the bottom of the homepage and then click Consent of Instructor Forms). Students are encouraged to apply as early as possible. See Consent Application Form for instructions and submission deadline.

In the last 15 years, the solar power market has grown in size by 100 times while solar modules prices have fallen by 20 times. Unsubsidized, solar power projects now compete favorably against fossil fuels in many countries and is on track to be the largest energy provider in the future. How did this happen? nnIn MatSci 302 we will take a comprehensive look at solar cells starting from the underlying device physics that are relevant to all photovoltaic cell technologies. We will then look at the undisputed king (silicon based solar cells); how do they work today and how will they develop in the future. Finally, we will look at why past challengers have failed and how future challengers can succeed. This class will be co-taught by Brian and Craig, who graduated from the Material Science PhD program in 2011 and then started PLANT PV, a startup that developed a solar technology from idea to protoype and then full implementation on production lines in China. The lecturers routinely visit manufacturing facilities in Asia and work closely with engineering staff at the largest solar cell makers in the world to implement their technology into production lines.

Concepts, methods, and applications. Energy/environmental policy issues such as automobile fuel economy regulation, global climate change, research and development policy, and environmental benefit assessment. Group project. Prerequisite: MS&E 241 or ECON 50.

Energy as a consumable. Forms and interconvertability. World Joule budget. Equivalents in rivers, oil pipelines and nuclear weapons. Quantum mechanics of fire, batteries and fuel cells. Hydrocarbon and hydrogen synthesis. Fundamental limits to mechanical, electrical and magnetic strengths of materials. Flywheels, capacitors and high pressure tanks. Principles of AC and DC power transmission. Impossibility of pure electricity storage. Surge and peaking. Solar constant. Photovoltaic and thermal solar conversion. Physical limits on agriculture.