"Hands on" Energy Curriculum At Stanford University

Abstract

At universities and colleges acro ss the country, environmental sci-
ence pro gram s are increasing in number and size as society attempts to
learn more about and craft pol icies to deal with environmental issues.
The qu estion "What should we do ?" grows more urgent. Man y academ-
ics no w realiz e this is a question des erving serious consideration, not
onl y in research, but in undergradu ate and graduate education.
On e ans wer is relatively simple: reduce greenhouse gas emi ssions
by increasin g energy efficienc y and the use of renewable energy sources.
Whil e there are man y concerns, primarily economic, about renewable
ene rgy so ur ces, few voice objections to enhancing energy efficiency, at
least, in theory. Despite the po ssibilities, energy use continues to grow
and efficiency onl y increa ses slowly. Are the technologists fundamen-
tally wrong, or are there non -technical barriers to achie ving efficiency
pot entials in the real world?
The next que stion is, "G iven the economic and environmental ben-
efits of replacing inefficient eq uipme nt with more energy efficient tech-
nologies, wh y are they not being implemented at a faster pac e?" While
official assessm ent s tend to focus on technical possibilities, several an-
swers to the imp lemen tation qu estion have been identified by Stanford
Uni versity studen ts wh o pur sued projects aimed at understanding this
practical qu estion. Their conclusions: sub-optimization, ignorance, spe-
cial interests and instituti onal barriers. As educator s, how can we deal
wi th these pr oblems in the classroom, i.e., how can we ext end the class-
room into the "real world ?"