SDG Detail

INAF U6135Renewable Energy Markets and Policy

Postgraduate course

Project description

Renewable energy is the fastest growing segment of the energy sector. While wildly popular in polling across the political spectrum, it is increasingly a point of political partisan divide among elected leaders. To combat global warming, many argue that renewables will need to provide most if not all of our energy, but getting there requires overcoming many technical, economic, and political challenges. This course explores not only what renewable energy is, but also what tools are available to expand access to it in the years to come. This course will introduce students to the full range of renewable energy technologies and the fault lines that make some technologies “real” renewables and others not. We will cover the status of each major family of renewable energy technology including the strengths and limitations, costs and forecasts for long-term deployment. We will focus on renewables in the context of the two largest markets — electricity generation and transportation energy with a heavier focus on the former. The course will focus heavily on the examples from the US experience, but will, occasionally, compare and contrast lessons from international and developing markets as well. Our goal will be to understand the full range of policy tools currently in use and under debate. We will follow current events at the federal and state level to frame discussions. In particular, we will look at tax credit policy, mandates, utility regulatory policies and EPA’s carbon regulations known as the Clean Power Plan.