Taught by Professor Kraemer

The industrial revolution that began in the early 1800’s resulted in the exponential growth of economies worldwide, and that growth was propelled by the exploitation of fossil fuels. That consumption of energy, however, has led to many of the world’s major environmental challenges, most notably climate change. So the question is: how can we continue to develop and improve quality of life for all of Earth’s inhabitants but reduce the concomitant environmental damage? The answer is something called energy transition, which is the process of switching our energy supply and consumption habits to renewable sources without degrading quality of life. This class is a basic primer in energy transition, covering basic energy information, electricity and electricity grid systems, and, of course, the major renewable sources of energy, such as: solar power, wind power, bioenergy, hydropower, geothermal, and solar thermal.