Energy and Society

ER100 / 200 & Pub Pol 184 / 284

Lecture 1: Organization, Overview & Goals

Professor Dan Kammen

Last update: August 24, 2010

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 The United States uses 25% of global energy

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 August 15, 2003: 8:15 PM

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 Was playing….!

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 Motivation
• Energy is the largest component of the global economy.
• Patterns of energy use are a fingerprint of society, and of our
impact on the environment. Dramatic differences exist.
• Technology matters: energy resources and technologies shape
cultures, economies, and international relations
• Policy matters: vastly different ways exist to use energy to
achieve economic, industrial, and household goals. [Sane energy
policy, when applied, makes a huge difference.]
• Energy issues require a ‘new’ form of interdisciplinary thinking
and analysis.
• We are in a unique era in the history of energy use & impact on
society and on the planet.
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 •
Course Management
http://er100200.berkeley.edu
• Its all on the website … use it!
• bspace – (http://bSpace.berkeley.edu) for course materials
• An interdisciplinary opportunity (& challenge)
• 2 lectures, 1 section per week and 4 optional field trips
• Texts:
¾ Hirsh, Richard (2000) Power Loss: The Origins of Deregulation and
Restructuring in the American Electric Utility System
¾ Rubin, Edward S. (2001) Introduction to Engineering & the Environment
¾ Online readings
• Note taking in this course … augmented by lecture handouts
• Graduate Student Instructors
¾ Christian Casillas
¾ Kevin Fingerman
¾ Joe Kantenbacher
¾ Imran Sheikh
¾ Sarah Swanbeck

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 More Course Management
Other key features:
• ER100 fulfills the ERG minor requirement & L&S tech.
elective, CoE Humanities and Social Studies (area C)
• ER200 fulfills the DEEST, CPUC internship requirements

________________________________________________

Field Trips (all Friday mornings; all optional):

Pittsburgh Power Plant
Moscone Center Solar/Energy Efficiency
Solano High Wind/Fuel Cell Cooperative

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 Homework & Memo Policy
The homework sets are very important (who wound not say that?):
HW is due in class on the Thursday the week after assigned
Penalty is 5% per weekday (Friday & Monday) until the answer set
is posted (Tuesday). After that, they will not be accepted.
The mid-term is Thursday, 10/21
The policy memos:
- Addressed and sent to real clients (and ideally, really, sent)
- Some are published, acted upon, etc. …

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 Semester Schedule

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 The Price of Oil

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 The Price of Oil

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 U. S. Oil Imports:
“What is our oil doing under their country?”

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 The early days of the spill
• Very sparse information was forthcoming
• In Physics 106, “Applied physics and
modern society”, I explored what applied
physics can tell us

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 Hagen–Poiseuille equation
• estimate the flow rate:

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 • Onset of turbulence at Re >~1600
Reynolds Number

• The flow rate = average velocity * well cross-sectional-area, so <v>

= (.05 m3/sec) / ( pi * (.05m)2) = 7 meters/sec, and Re ~700. But the
peak flow in the center of the pipe is twice <v>, so the central flow
maybe turbulent. Turbulence reduces flow, therefore flow predicted
by the Poisuille equation above maybe self-limiting, i.e., if the oil
were to flow any faster, then onset of turbulence would slow it back
down. Said another way, its not just coincidence that we computed
Re ~ 1600 for the well, rather the flow (and Re) increased until the
onset of turbulence.

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China Racing Ahead of U.S. in the Drive to Go Solar
By KEITH BRADSHER
Published: August 24, 2009

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 On a street in Berkeley ...

Among the problems that we typically don’t face are that of

consumption, affluence, and population.

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 The Greenland Ice Sheet

Source: Business Week Aug. 2004

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 The Greenland Ice Sheet

Source: Business Week Aug. 2004

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 The Greenland Ice Sheet

• Melt area has increased by 20%,

1979 - 2005

•Total Greenland ice ~ 23 ft of sea

level rise

• At [CO2] of 500 - 700 ppm ice

sheet disintegration likely becomes
irreversible
([CO2] 2005 = 370 ppm)

•An example of positive feedback

Source: Business Week Aug. 2004
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 For an inventory of
effects, see:
Climatehotmap.org

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