What is the his­to­ry and evo­lu­tion of envi­ron­men­tal think­ing and
writ­ing? How have cer­tain “envi­ron­men­tal clas­sics” shaped the way in
which we think about nature, soci­ety and devel­op­ment? (And, as a
corol­lary, what has shaped the intel­lec­tu­al his­to­ry of pro­grams like
the Ener­gy and Resources Group?). This course will use a selec­tion of
20th cen­tu­ry books /​ papers that have had a major impact on academic
and wider pub­lic think­ing about the envi­ron­ment /​ devel­op­ment to probe
these issues. The selec­tion includes works that have influenced
envi­ron­men­tal pol­i­tics, pol­i­cy and schol­ar­ship in the USA as well as in
the devel­op­ing world. We will not only read these clas­sics, but we will
also read reviews and cri­tiques of these books ­ both those written
at the time of first pub­li­ca­tion, and more recent com­men­taries ­ to
explore the evo­lu­tion of thought on these trans­form­ing ideas.

When avail­able, the web­page for this course will be post­ed here. Please check back lat­er for an updat­ed link.

In this course, you will devel­op an under­stand­ing ­ and a real
work­ing knowl­edge ­ of our ener­gy tech­nolo­gies, poli­cies, and
options. This will include analy­sis of the dif­fer­ent oppor­tu­ni­ties and
impacts of ener­gy sys­tems that exist with­in and between groups defined
by nation­al, region­al, house­hold, eth­nic, gen­der dis­tinc­tions. Analysis
of the range of cur­rent and future ener­gy choic­es will be stressed, as
well as the role of ener­gy in deter­min­ing local envi­ron­men­tal con­di­tions, and the glob­al climate.

The course web­site can be found here: http://​er100200​.berke​ley​.edu/

This grad­u­ate sem­i­nar will exam­ine the relationship
between development
the­o­ry and prac­tice with respect to issues of ener­gy use, technology
and
cul­ture. We will explore the often diver­gent ideas about development
that
have emerged from civ­il soci­ety, acad­e­mia, multi­na­tion­al development
agen­cies, and nation­al devel­op­ment plans in order to inves­ti­gate the
dif­fer­ing per­spec­tives cur­rent­ly envi­sioned for a sus­tain­able energy
future. The course will focus on ener­gy options at the house­hold and
com­mu­ni­ty lev­el, pay­ing par­tic­u­lar atten­tion to the needs of
individuals,
pri­mar­i­ly in rur­al areas of devel­op­ing nations. It will then examine
the­o­ries of ener­gy sys­tems as a nation­al, often cen­tral­ly planned
infra­struc­ture. The sem­i­nar will explore ideas of ‘appro­pri­ate
tech­nol­o­gy’, and cul­tur­al and polit­i­cal aspects of ener­gy ser­vices, and
envi­ron­men­tal impacts. Spe­cif­ic themes in the class will include gender
analy­sis, renew­able ener­gy alter­na­tives, the emer­gence of decentralized
ener­gy options, and new ener­gy and envi­ron­men­tal linkages.

This tech­ni­cal course focus­es on the fun­da­men­tals of pho­to­volta­ic (PV)
ener­gy con­ver­sion with respect to the phys­i­cal prin­ci­ples of operation
and design of effi­cient semi­con­duc­tor solar cell devices. Incorporating
ideas from a vari­ety of dis­ci­plines, the course aims to equip students
with the con­cepts and ana­lyt­i­cal skills nec­es­sary to assess the utility
and via­bil­i­ty of var­i­ous mod­ern PV tech­nolo­gies in the con­text of a
grow­ing glob­al renew­able ener­gy mar­ket. Tra­di­tion­al mate­ri­als science
and device physics are inte­grat­ed with the prac­ti­cal issues of
con­nec­tiv­i­ty, cost and mar­ket analy­sis, and pol­i­cy con­sid­er­a­tions to
pro­vide a com­plete pic­ture of the engi­neer­ing and devel­op­ment of modern
PV sys­tems. Back­ground in sol­id state physics or
semi­con­duc­tor elec­tron­ics is strong­ly recommended.

Spring 2012 Grad­u­ate Sem­i­nar: Tues­day, 3:00 –
4:30, Room TBA

Sem­i­nar on
Sys­temic Actions and Impacts (CCN: 27439)