Description
Course Description
The purpose of this 1-hour course is to present information on many of the trends currently underway that relate to electrical generation and utilization that are progressing toward sustainable generation and use of electricity.
The course focuses on summarizing U.S. and worldwide electrical generation, utilization and storage trends such as photovoltaics, wind power and geothermal generation; electric vehicles and improving efficiency in everyday energy utilization; zero energy buildings, distributed electrical generation and small and large energy storage systems.
Special emphasis is placed on the economic issues that are driving these trends.
Course Objectives
Upon completion of the course, the student should be familiar with:
- Trends in electrical generation and the economic and ecological impacts.
- Growth trends in renewables vs growth trends in fossil fuels
- How much electricity does it take to charge an electric vehicle, how long does it take and what does it cost?
- Development of renewables in the U.S. vs the rest of the world.
- Trends in energy efficiency measures.
- Comparative economics and performance of zero energy buildings.
- A collection of small and large energy storage systems and their contribution to grid stability in a world of variable sources.
- How the electrical grid of the future will likely compare with the present grid.
Course Hours: 1