Energy and Power: Production, Distribution, and Society


This course is an introduction to energy and power within a societal context.

Useful Prerequisites

A general knowledge base in these topics will facilitate learning.

Reference

Topics

Energy Consumption: Utility and Inequality

  1. World Portfolio
    • Breakdown by Users, Sources, and End Use
    • Relationship to GDP
    • Trends, Projections, and Scenarios
    • International Efforts
  2. United States Energy Policy
    • Energy Portfolio
    • The Department of Energy
    • History, Policy, and Industry

Basic Ideas: Exercises and Review

  1. The Conservation of Energy
    • Special Topic: Crackpot Claims and Spotting Violations of the First Law
  2. Work and Heat in Thermodynamic Analysis
    • P-V Diagrams
    • T-S Diagrams
    • Psychrometrics
    • Chemical Energy and Combustion
    • Temperature Dependent Chemical Equilibrium
  3. Circuits: Resistors, Capacitors, and Inductors
    • DC Circuits
    • AC Circuts
  4. Transformers, Motors, and Turbines
  5. Distribution of Electric Energy

Energy Sources: Technology, Cost, and Potential

  1. Special Topic: Non-Renewable, Renewable, Sustainable
  2. Fossil
    • Coal
    • Natural Gas
    • Petroleum
  3. Nuclear
  4. Solar
    • Photovoltaics
    • Solar Thermal
  5. Water
    • Hydroelectric
    • Ocean Wave
    • Ocean Tidal
    • Ocean Current
  6. Biomass
  7. Wind
  8. Geothermal

Energy Storage and Conversion

  1. Gasification
  2. Waste to Energy
  3. Fuel Cells
  4. Hydrogen
  5. Micro-Turbines
  6. Flywheels
  7. Batteries
  8. Electricity
  9. Distributed Generation
  10. Diesel Generators
  11. Turbines

Building Energy Use

  1. Green Building Design
    • Information Technology and Building Energy Management
    • HVAC systems
      • Psychrometrics, Human Comfort, and Energy
    • Lighting
  2. Time-Dependent Demand
  3. Commercial and Residential

Transportation

  1. Spark Ignition, Diesel, and Hybrid Vehicles
  2. Freight and Shipping
  3. Air Travel

The Path of Emerging Technologies

Power Cycles and Car Engine Design

  1. Otto Cycle
  2. Diesel Cycle

Power Cycles and Power Plant Design

  1. Rankine Cycle
    • Reheat
  2. Brayton
  3. Issues in Efficiency and Cost

Combustion and Pollution

  1. Combustion and Chemical Energy
  2. Kinetics
  3. Common Pollutants and Concerns
  4. Regulation

Economics and Energy Markets

  1. Limited Natural Resource Economics
    • Jevons Paradox
    • The Consumption Curve
    • Reserves
  2. Pollution Caps and Trading
  3. Electricity
    • Supply and Demand: Peaks and Valleys
    • Grid Capacity and Infrastructure Costs
    • Deregulation
    • Real-time Pricing
  4. Developmental Economics and Energy
    • Traditional Energy Portfolios
    • Human Impacts and Correlations
    • The Great Divide: North vs South
  5. Econometrics and Energy Forecasting

Sustainability and Energy

  1. Global Warming
    • CO2 Equivalent Sources and Sinks Accounting
    • Carbon Sequestration
    • Atmospheric Modeling
  2. Energy Sources and Magnitudes
  3. Special Topic: Consumption, Capitalism, and Unsustainable Growth

The Future: Scenarios of Disaster and Opportunity

  1. Economic and Environmental Forces for Change
  2. The Role of the Engineer: Ideas with Potential

Further reading

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