RESET - Renewable Energy Policy, Engineering and Business

RESET is an interdisciplinary course that explores the incredible potential of renewable energy, energy storage, and electrification to mitigate climate change. Students will gain an in-depth understanding of the complex dynamics that are driving rapid deployment of renewables and present both opportunities and challenges to decarbonization in the years ahead. Through the lenses of business, policy, and engineering, students in RESET will learn through classroom lectures from faculty, industry professionals, and policy-makers; group discussions; field trips to solar arrays and a landfill gas power plant; and a final team project where students serve as consultants to a local government, proposing an on-site solar strategy, local policy changes to support decarbonization, and more. By the end of the course, students will have an understanding of many large-scale issues influencing decarbonization, as well as the real-world factors that are necessary for designing, financing, and building new renewable energy projects. Why renewables and the grid? Decarbonizing the electric grid paired with electrifying sectors that currently run on fossil fuels - including transportation, heating, buildings, and manufacturing and construction - together have the potential to reduce more than 50% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The global energy transition, which was already well-underway, accelerated in 2022 due to a combination of countries' energy security concerns following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and expanding climate ambition resulting in new policies that support renewable energy, including the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States. The International Energy Agency's 2022 Renewables report found that "renewables are set to account for over 90% of global electricity expansion over the next five years, overtaking coal to become the largest source of global electricity by early 2025." Registration for this course is direct to waitlist, followed by submittin
Course Attributes: FA NSM; BU SCI; AR NSM; AS NSM

RESET - Renewable Energy Policy, Engineering and Business

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES 407

Section 01