Current Courses

Teaser:

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.

Teaser:

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/

Teaser:

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.

Teaser:

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.

Teaser:

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

Sem­i­nar on
Sys­temic Actions and Impacts (CCN: 
27439)

 

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RAEL Info

Energy & Resources Group
310 Barrows Hall
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-3050
Phone: (510) 642-1640
Fax: (510) 642-1085
Email: ergdeskb@berkeley.edu


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