First-Year Writing Seminar (105-8-02)

Topic

Achieving Energy Abundance in the Energy Transitio

Instructors

Edward Sargent

Meeting Info

Technological Institute L170: Tues, Thurs 2:00PM - 3:20PM

Overview of class

Achieving Energy Abundance in the Energy Transition: Electricity demand in the US and globally has entered into a new regime of growth, powered by rapid scaling of data centers in light of AI's progress, combined with reshoring and electrification of manufacturing.

This considerable energy demand growth will need to be fulfilled rapidly; with firm guarantees re: the dependability of the electricity; and affordably. More and more of this energy will have to be lower in its CO2 intensity than has been legacy energy production.

This will entail rapid progress in solar and wind with storage; geothermal; nuclear; and blue power. Looking more broadly across sectors, it will require innovative sustainable fuels and chemicals to power transportation, to feed the needs of industry, and to fulfill the growing energy requirements of individuals, including in high-growth emerging economies.

We will explore issues of a scientific and engineering nature; as well as of systems, economics, and policy; relating to achieving the needed growth in energy during the energy transition. We will study the global potential, as well as the realistic technical capacity, of the major current and future contributors to the energy mix; look at areas of science and technology that require advances to enable sustainable growth and maintain global competitiveness; and consider the links to national and international economics and politics.

Class Materials (Required)

Course materials will be provided in Canvas

Class Materials (Suggested)

None

Class Attributes

WCAS Writing Seminar

Enrollment Requirements

Enrollment Requirements: Weinberg First Year Seminars are only available to first-year students.