Daniel Kammen is interviewed on the expected rise of water demand by different types of solar power plants, such as solar thermal plants which need water for the wet-cooling process or solar trough power plants. Problems of water scarcity with their implications on local communities and the environment seem to be especially prevalent in the west of the US. However, these issues are likely to become contentious all over the country as the population grows further and intensive renewable energy development spreads.

Lunch Seminar: Reviving the Rural Electrification Idea Lab. Mary Louise Gifford is a Master student of the Energy and Resources Group and a PhD candidate at the Environmental Policy Research Centre, Free University, Berlin, Germany and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Potsdam, Germany.

Wednesday, Noon-1:00 p.m., October 7.
323 Barrows Hall (ERG Reading Room)
University of California, Berkeley

This is part of the weekly RAEL lunch seminar series

Strategic Issues in Energy Resources and Politics

Syllabus

Class 1

Class 2

Class 3

Lunch Seminar: US Photovoltaic markets. Carla Peterman is a Phd Candidate of the Energy and Resources Group.

Wednesday, Noon-1:00 p.m., September 30.
323 Barrows Hall (ERG Reading Room)
University of California, Berkeley

This is part of the weekly RAEL lunch seminar series

The focus of this talk is recent trends in the U.S. photovoltaic market, with particular emphasis on downstream activities and actors. The seminar will cover installed costs trends from 1998 through 2008, financing issues and models, and implications of recent policy for PV diffusion.

Biofuels. Chris Somerville is Philomathia Professor of Alternative Energy in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at UC Berkeley, and Director of the Energy Biosciences Institute at UC Berkeley, which was founded with the single largest grant in university history, worldwide.

Tuesdays, Noon-1:30 p.m., November 3.
David Brower Center, 2150 Allston Way

This is part of a seminar series: Strategic Issues in Energy Resources and Politics (October 6 to November 10)
Flyer

Power Grid. Mason Willrich is a senior advisor to the MIT Energy Innovation Project and Chair of the California Independent Service Operators Board of Governors. He is an expert on U.S. energy infrastructure and a clean energy venture capitalist.

Tuesdays, Noon-1:30 p.m., October 27.
David Brower Center, 2150 Allston Way

This is part of a seminar series: Strategic Issues in Energy Resources and Politics (October 6 to November 10)
Flyer

Nuclear Energy. Per Peterson is a Professor and former Chair of Nuclear Engineering at UC Berkeley, and manages the UC Berkeley Thermal Hydraulics Research Laboratory. He is an expert on fission and fusion.

Tuesdays, Noon-1:30 p.m., October 20.
David Brower Center, 2150 Allston Way

This is part of a seminar series: Strategic Issues in Energy Resources and Politics ( October 6 to November 10)
Flyer

Energy Economics. Severin Borenstein is the E.T. Grether Professor of Business and Public Policy at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, and Director of the UC Energy Institute. He is a leading expert on the energy economy.

Tuesdays, Noon-1:30 p.m., October 6.
David Brower Center, 2150 Allston Way

This is part of a seminar series: Strategic Issues in Energy Resources and Politics (October 6 to November 10)
Flyer

Planning low-cost, high-penetration renewable energy investments through application of the Switch computational model.

With Switch (a loose acronym for Solar, Wind, Hydro and Conventional generators and Transmission), one can explore development options for the future electricity grid throughout the United States. The model identifies cost-effective investment decisions for meeting future electricity demand, taking into account the existing grid as well as projections of future fuel costs, technological developments, renewable energy potential, and proposed policies. Early results for California indicate the state's Renewable Portfolio Standard can be met with no additional cost to consumers. We are actively expanding the model to the rest of the United States as well as gathering data for China.