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FFR170 Sustainable energy futures lp1 HT19 (7.5 hp)

Course is offered by the department of Space, Earth and Environment

Contact details

  • Examiners: Sonia Yeh (sonia.yeh@chalmers.se), Professor;
    Christian Azar (christian.azar@chalmers.se), Professor
  • Course administrator: Yuan Liao (yuan.liao@chalmers.se)

Course purpose

The course aims to give students knowledge of the general development of the energy system (past development and outlook for the future), its environmental and resource impacts, as well as tools to analyze these developments. The overall aim of this course is to address the following questions:

  • What role may energy efficiency, renewables, fossil fuel and nuclear power, play in the near- and long-term future if the climate challenge is to be met?
  • In which sectors are limited energy resources most efficiently used, e.g., should biomass be used for transportation fuels or for heat production?
  • Which climate policies are needed for a cost-effective solution to the climate challenge?
  • How may climate change policies reshape the world energy system over the next century?

The aim is to illustrate these issues by drawing upon recent research in the area, and based upon this to discuss visions for a sustainable energy future.

Schedule

See the schedule here. 

Course literature

  • The list of reading materials in the course compendium
  • Makten över klimatet (Swedish) / Solving the Climate Challenge (English) by Christian Azar.

Course design

In order to pass the course, you must:

  • submit all calculation exercises and participate in the discussion (18%)
  • participate as audience in all but one of the student debates (12%)
  • participate as a debate member in one of the student debates (10 or 12%)
  • pass the written exam (60%).

The students are required to upload your calculations onto the course’s Canvas website before the due dates. The calculation exercises are due on Tuesday noon. These submissions won’t be graded based on how well you do but you must try to complete all calculations and show your work for each question. The TAs will review the submissions to help them guide the discussion during the exercise sessions. This part of the grade will be 0/3, i.e., each calculation exercise will be 3 points if a homework is submitted (unless you leave major portions empty) otherwise a 0 point will be given. If a student submits all the calculation exercises on time, then he/she will receive 18 points (6×3 pt). It is important for you to submit your homework on time as points will be deducted from a late submission unless a student communicates with the TA beforehand. For discussion questions, write down two or three short sentences about your key arguments. The solutions for each calculation assignment will be uploaded on Wednesday noon.

Attending the calculation exercises is optional but strongly encouraged. 

All students must participate in all four debates as audience in three and as debate members in one. You will choose your debate topic at the beginning of the class. Your position (for or against a topic), however, will only be announced two weeks prior to the debate. Students will receive 12 points ( 3×4 pt) from participating the debates as audience. Students will receive 10 points from participating a debate, and 2 extra points from winning the debates (see the Debate sheet for more information). If a student misses a debate, he/she must turn in a 500-word write-up stating his/her position of the debate topic and explain why.

The rest of the grade (60%) will be based on the written exam. A student must score at least 24pt (out of 60pt) in the final exam in order to pass the course. The final grade is the sum of the final exam, homework and the debate. The final grade of the course corresponds to the following total points:

<64 pt Fail; 64 pt – 75 pt Grade 3; 76 pt – 87 pt Grade 4; ≥88 pt Grade 5

Learning objectives and syllabus

Learning objectives:

    • apply the concepts and tools presented in the course (see below under Content) to analyze real-world problems related to energy systems
    • explain the difference between marginal and average electricity, and apply this knowledge to solve the problem in specific context
    • describe how climate policy instruments work such as cap-and-trade scheme or a carbon tax, and reflect upon advantages and disadvantages compared to other policy instruments
    • explain the concept of climate sensitivity and what implications the uncertainty in this parameter will have on the temperature impacts of our emissions, and how much we need to reduce emissions if we want to meet the below 2-degree target of the Paris agreement
    • discuss the significance of climate negotiations such as the Paris Agreement, and whether they are sufficient to meet the climate target(s)
    • describe the complexity of controversial energy technologies such as carbon capture and storage, bioenergy or nuclear power, and to present the major arguments of both sides
    • explain why energy efficiency measures are often not implemented, even though they may be more economically attractive
    • explain what options grid operators have for dealing with large amounts of variable renewable electricity sources like solar or wind power
    • calculate the levelized cost of electricity, given fuel costs, operation amp; maintenence costs, and investment costs and discuss the pros and cons of using it to evaluate a technology
    • calculate how much uranium is required to operate a nuclear reactor for a year, and how much plutonium is produced
    • make appropriate assumptions when available information on a problem of the above type is incomplete
    • perform back-of-envelope calculations to make rough "sanity checks" of energy systems questions. For example: if a family installs solar cells on the roof of their house, would the modules provide enough electricity (on average) to power their electric car?
    • distinguish facts from moral values. Discuss Hume's Law (one cannot derive an "ought" from an "is") when doing energy analysis. Discuss what to do about environmental problems related to energy use.
    • discuss the moral responsibility of individuals versus governments when it comes to-solving the-climate problem

    Link to the syllabus.

    Detailed Compendium

     

    Course summary:

    Date Details Due