11.165
Urban Energy Systems and Policy
Examines efforts in developing and advanced nations and regions. Examines key issues in the current and future development of urban energy systems, such as technology, use, behavior, regulation, climate change, and lack of access or energy poverty. Case studies on a diverse sampling of cities explore how prospective technologies and policies can be implemented. Includes intensive group research projects, discussion, and debate. Students taking the graduate version complete additional assignments.
Fall 2022
This class is about figuring out together what cities and users can do to reduce their energy use and carbon emissions. Many other classes at MIT focus on policies, technologies, and systems, often at the national or international level, but this course focuses on the scale of cities and users. It is designed for any students interested in learning how to intervene in the energy use of cities using policy, technology, economics, and urban planning.
Readings
- [DM] chapters 1, 2
- Nikayla Jefferson and Leah C. Stokes. “Our Racist Fossil Fuel Energy System.” BostonGlobe.com, July 13, 2020.
- Andrew Revkin. “When Climate Action Meets Energy Friction: Why Permitting Reform Is Easier Sought than Done.” Sustain What, August 23, 2022.
- [DM] chapters 3, 20, technical chapter A
- Noah Kittner, Ioannis Tsiropoulos, Dalius Tarvydas, Oliver Schmidt, Iain Staffell, and Daniel M. Kammen (2020). “Electric Vehicles.” In Martin Junginger and Atse Louwen (eds.), Technological Learning in the Transition to a Low-Carbon Energy System , 145–163. Elsevier. ISBN: 9780128187623.
- M.J. Bradley & Associates. “Financial Incentives for Electric Vehicles.” ERM Group, 2022.
- [DM] chapter 5, technical chapter C
- Aiofe O’Leary (2019). “Aviation.” Chapter 16 in Michael B. Gerrard and John C. Dernbach (eds.), Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States , 1st ed. Environmental Law Institute. ISBN: 9781585761975
- [DM] chapters 7, 9, 11, technical chapter E
- [DM] chapters 19, 21, 22
- [DM] chapter 15, technical chapter H
- [DM] chapters 23–24
- [DM] chapters 4, 6, 8, 10, 16, 18, technical chapters B, D
- [DM] chapters 10, 16, 18
- [DM] chapters 25–27
- Drew Shindell and Christopher J. Smith (2019). “Climate and Air-Quality Benefits of a Realistic Phase-Out of Fossil Fuels.” Nature 573(7774): 408–411.
- Kenneth E. Train (1991). Optimal Regulation: The Economic Theory of Natural Monopoly , chapter 1. The MIT Press. ISBN: 9780262200844
- José A. Gómez-Ibáñez (2006). Regulating Infrastructure: Monopoly, Contracts, and Discretion , chapter 2. Harvard University Press. ISBN: 9780674022386
- [DM] chapter 13
- Bridle, Sarah L. 2020. Food and Climate Change Without the Hot Air: Change Your Diet: The Easiest Way to Help Save the Planet. UIT Cambridge, Ltd. ISBN: 9780857845030.
- Magazines and journals such as the New Yorker (Bill McKibben, Elizabeth Kolbert) and the Atlantic (Robinson Meyer)
Fall 2011 · Infrastructure and Energy Technology Challenges
Topics
- Infrastructure in Crisis: History and Introduction
- Infrastructure, Public Goods, and Market Failure
- Infrastructure and Regulations
- Infrastructure Investment and Economic Growth
- Infrastructure and Development
- Infrastructure and Regional Development
- Infrastructure, Technologies, and Innovations
- Infrastructure Financing
- Infrastructure Funding
- Infrastructure Delivery
- Project Financing
- Financing Energy Infrastructure
- The Energy Chain and Market, Part I
- The Energy Chain and Market, Part II
- Issues and Challenges
- Energy and Economic Development
- Social Development and Sustainability Aspects
- Energy Infrastructure: Needs and Urgencies in the United States
- Energy Infrastructure in Emerging and Other Advanced Economies
- Disruptions to Energy Supply
- Infrastructure Protection, Natural Disasters, and Terrorist Threats
- Food vs. Fuel?
- Emerging Issues and Policy Implications
- Regulations, Constraints, and Political Processes of Energy Infrastructure
- Student Presentations
Readings
- Mas-Colell, Andreu, Michael D. Whinston, and Jerry R. Green. Chapter 11 in Microeconomic Theory . Oxford University Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780195073409.
- United Nations. “The Economic Regulation of Facilities and Services.” Chapters 1 and 3 in Bangkok: United Nations—Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific . 2001.
- Banerjee, A., and E. Duflo. “Growth Theory through the Lens of Development Economics.” In Handbook of Economic Growth . Edited by P. Aghion and S. Durlauf. North Holland, 2006, pp. 473–515. ISBN: 9780444520418.
- Bramati, M. C., and D. Veredas. The Impact of Infrastructure on Growth in East Asia: Technical Report . Mimeo, World Bank, 2006.
- Polenske, K. R., et al. An Assessment of Public Infrastructure in Massachusetts . Joint Center for Urban Studies of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, 1983.
- Miller, John B. Case Studies in Infrastructure Delivery . Springer, 2002. ISBN: 9780792376521.
- Ahmed, P. A., et al. Chapter 1 in “Project Finance in Developing Countries.” International Finance Corporation, 1999.
- Beidleman, et al. “On Allocating Risk: The Essence of Project Finance.” Sloan Management Review 31, no. 3 (1990): 47–55.
- Jamison, E. “From Innovation to Infrastructure: Financing First Commercial Clean Energy Projects.” CalCEF, 2010.
- United Nations. The Energy Challenge for Achieving the Millennium Development Goals . UN-Energy, 2005. )
- Oshikoya, W. T., and M. Nureldin Hussain. “Infrastructure for Economic Development in Africa.” In Regional Integration in Africa . Edited by J. Braga de Macedo and O. Kabbaj. OECD Development Centre Seminars, 2001. Focus on energy issues only.
- Asian Development Bank. Energy Infrastructure: Priorities, Constraints, and Strategies for India . Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780195692105.
- Deutch, J., et al. Energy Security and Climate Change . The Triangle Papers no. 61. Trilateral Commission, 2007, pp. 1–20. ISBN: 9780930503901.
- Deutch, J., et al. Energy Security and Climate Change . The Triangle Papers no. 61. Trilateral Commission, 2007, pp. 21–50. ISBN: 9780930503901.
- Kalicki, Jan H., and David L. Goldwyn. Energy and Security: Toward a New Foreign Policy Strategy . The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780801882791.
- Khan, A. R. “Interfacing Food and Energy Security: Bangladesh Perspective.” Presented at NTS-Asia 2nd Annual Convention. Beijing, 2008.
- Banks, Ferdinand E. Chapter 1 in The Political Economy of World Energy: An Introductory Textbook . World Scientific Publishing Company, 2007. ISBN: 9789812700360.
- Guerrero Compeán, R. “Fueling an Omnivorous Car: The Rise, Fall, and Rise of Brazil’s Renewable Energy Industry.” Industrial Performance Center Energy Innovation Working Paper Series , Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2009.
- Hira, A. Chapter 5 in Political Economy of Energy in the Southern Cone . Praeger, 2003. ISBN: 9780275978303.
- Molchanov, M. A., and Y. Yevdokimov. “The Political Economy of the Energy Sector in the Central Asia-Caspian Sea Region: A Conceptual Framework.” Roundtable on Transnationality and the Conference Transnational Risks—A New Challenge for a Global Society, Berlin, 2004.
Prerequisites & course information
Subject meets with 1.286[J] , 11.477[J] Prereq: 14.01 or permission of instructor U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Fall 2022
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Fall 2011
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.