Worldwide Energy Sources Course

Lesson 1 • Global Energy Demand Overview

Maps current worldwide consumption patterns by sector and region. Connects demand drivers to economic development, population growth, and industrialization trends.

Lesson 2 • Energy Supply Chains

Traces the path from resource extraction to end-use delivery for major energy types. Reveals where losses, costs, and risks accumulate along each chain.

Lesson 3 • Energy Source Classification

Distinguishes renewable, non-renewable, and transitional sources using technical and resource-depletion criteria. Builds the taxonomy applied throughout the course.

Lesson 4 • Key Metrics for Energy Analysis

Introduces capacity factor, levelized cost, energy return on investment, and related indicators. Equips students to evaluate and compare energy sources objectively.

Lesson 1 • Environmental and Resource Constraints

Quantifies greenhouse gas emissions, air pollutants, water use, and land disturbance from fossil fuel operations. Frames the environmental costs that motivate energy transition policies.

Lesson 2 • Fossil Fuel Combustion and Power Generation

Analyzes thermal power plant cycles, efficiency improvements, and combined heat and power systems. Connects combustion chemistry to electricity output and emissions profiles.

Lesson 3 • Coal: Formation and Extraction

Covers coal rank, seam geology, and surface versus underground mining methods. Establishes the resource base and extraction economics central to coal's global role.

Lesson 4 • Oil: Exploration and Production

Explains reservoir geology, seismic surveying, drilling, and well completion for conventional and unconventional oil. Links geological knowledge to production cost and reserve estimation.

Lesson 1 • Nuclear Safety and Risk Management

Examines defense-in-depth principles, passive safety systems, and lessons from major incidents. Connects safety architecture to public acceptance and regulatory oversight.

Lesson 2 • Nuclear Physics Essentials

Introduces fission, chain reactions, neutron moderation, and criticality without advanced mathematics. Provides the physical basis for understanding reactor operation and safety.

Lesson 3 • Nuclear Fuel Cycle

Traces uranium from mining through enrichment, fabrication, in-reactor use, and spent fuel storage. Highlights resource efficiency differences between open and closed fuel cycles.

Lesson 4 • Reactor Designs and Technologies

Compares pressurized water, boiling water, CANDU, and fast breeder reactor designs. Explains how design choices affect fuel use, safety systems, and power output.

Lesson 1 • PV System Design and Components

Covers inverters, mounting structures, wiring, and monitoring for residential, commercial, and utility-scale PV systems. Applies resource data and component specs to system sizing exercises.

Lesson 2 • Photovoltaic Cell and Module Technology

Explains the photovoltaic effect, cell architectures, and module efficiency trends for crystalline and thin-film technologies. Connects material science to real-world performance and cost trajectories.

Lesson 3 • Solar Resource Assessment

Quantifies irradiance, insolation, and seasonal variation using satellite data and ground measurements. Accurate resource assessment is the prerequisite for any solar project feasibility study.

Lesson 4 • Concentrating Solar Power Systems

Analyzes parabolic trough, power tower, and dish-Stirling CSP technologies and their thermal storage integration. Distinguishes CSP's dispatchability advantage from standard PV systems.

Lesson 1 • Pumped-Storage Hydropower

Analyzes pumped-storage as grid-scale energy storage, covering round-trip efficiency, response time, and siting constraints. Positions pumped storage as the dominant long-duration storage technology today.

Lesson 2 • Hydropower: Dams and Run-of-River

Explains hydraulic head, flow rate, turbine selection, and reservoir operation for large and small hydro schemes. Connects hydrological data to capacity and annual energy output estimates.

Lesson 3 • Wind Resource and Turbine Fundamentals

Applies Betz's law, wind speed distributions, and turbine power curves to resource quantification. Establishes the aerodynamic and mechanical basis for wind turbine performance analysis.

Lesson 4 • Onshore and Offshore Wind Development

Compares site selection, foundation types, installation logistics, and O&M costs for land-based and offshore wind projects. Highlights the higher yield and cost challenges of offshore environments.

Lesson 1 • Hydrogen Production Methods

Compares steam methane reforming, electrolysis, biomass gasification, and thermochemical splitting by cost and carbon intensity. Introduces the color-coding convention used in industry to classify hydrogen.

Lesson 2 • Geothermal Energy Systems

Distinguishes hydrothermal, hot dry rock, and geopressured geothermal resources and their power plant configurations. Evaluates baseload capacity, geographic constraints, and drilling cost drivers.

Lesson 3 • Biofuels for Transportation

Covers first-, second-, and third-generation biofuel production, blending standards, and lifecycle emissions. Addresses land-use change, food-fuel competition, and advanced feedstock strategies.

Lesson 4 • Hydrogen Storage and Distribution

Reviews compressed gas, liquid hydrogen, and solid-state storage technologies alongside pipeline and truck delivery options. Connects storage and distribution choices to end-use application requirements.

Lesson 1 • Electrochemical Storage Technologies

Compares lithium-ion, flow battery, sodium-ion, and lead-acid chemistries by energy density, cycle life, and cost. Provides the technical foundation for selecting storage for specific grid applications.

Lesson 2 • Mechanical and Thermal Storage

Covers compressed air energy storage, flywheel systems, and molten salt thermal storage alongside pumped hydro reviewed earlier. Highlights duration, response time, and siting differences from electrochemical options.

Lesson 3 • Microgrids and Distributed Storage

Designs islanded and grid-connected microgrids using distributed generation, storage, and control systems. Demonstrates how distributed storage improves resilience and defers transmission investment.

Lesson 4 • Integrating Variable Renewable Energy

Addresses forecasting, curtailment management, ramp rate requirements, and flexibility resources for high-renewable grids. Quantifies the integration costs that rise with increasing renewable penetration.

Lesson 1 • Just Transition and Equity Considerations

Addresses workforce displacement in fossil fuel regions, energy access gaps, and distributional impacts of carbon pricing. Integrates equity principles into transition planning to build social license.

Lesson 2 • Energy Security and Geopolitics

Analyzes supply concentration, critical mineral dependencies, and trade flows as energy security risks. Frames how diversification, strategic reserves, and domestic production reduce geopolitical vulnerability.

Lesson 3 • Decarbonization Pathways and Scenarios

Applies scenario modeling to compare net-zero pathways across power, industry, transport, and buildings sectors. Connects technology deployment rates to temperature and emissions outcomes.

Lesson 4 • Transition Roadmap Development

Guides students through milestone setting, investment planning, stakeholder mapping, and progress tracking for a national or regional energy transition plan. Integrates all course content into a capstone planning exercise.