Pages
Due Dates
- The week before class: Read the material well in advance. If you have signed up to help lead discussion, then the week before, send me an email suggesting an activity for class discussion. This can be a prompt, a debate, or a news article, whatever you want to talk about with your classmates.
- The day before class: Problem sets and/or reading questions are due by midnight (11:59 pm).
- Session 16: Paper proposal: one-page single-spaced proposal maximum for your final paper (see below). The topic is not binding, but I want you to think about the topic and area early so you can look out for, and suggest to each other, material for your papers.
- Session 17: The midterm exam will follow a similar format as the problem sets. I will give some additional problems for practice beforehand.
- Sessions 24–26: Short presentations, schedule TBD based on student interests (and numbers). One slide maximum, 16 point font minimum, must be circulated to your classmates and me in PDF format one full day beforehand.
- Friday after session 26: Final paper due 5 pm, no extensions. This will describe a strategic plan to meet one specific energy challenge for a specific city. This paper will include a description of your plan and/or intervention, with an assessment of its prospects for success (strengths, weaknesses, other contributing factors necessary), an assessment of the capability of proposed or existing institutions to carry out the plan, and an analysis of its likely environmental, economic, and social effects. You should also turn in basic calculations as needed (not included in the paper page limit), which shows how you derived the key calculations that are the foundation of your paper analysis.
Paper Criteria
In general, papers will be evaluated based on the degree to which they present a clear and coherent argument, introduce appropriate supporting evidence, and develop the argument to a logical conclusion. You should develop your writing and thoughts through multiple written drafts. Other considerations:
- Format: Avoid overly fancy graphic layouts for your paper. Please use black text, white paper, 1.5 or double-spacing, a font with serifs, minimum font size 11.
- Bibliographies: You should include a full bibliography in a common citation format (for example, University of Chicago, Harvard, MLA). This will not count towards the total pages of the paper. Zotero is a great free tool that can help you organize your citations, materials, and writing process.
- Tables and graphics: You are encouraged to use any tools that you need to communicate, such as maps, figures, or tables, but these exhibits may not exceed 20% of the pages. Captions and references help to integrate graphics and text. These exhibits will also be graded for clarity, cogency, and the degree to which they support, inform, or extend the argument presented in the text.
Paradoxically, urban planning professor David Hsu doesn’t consider himself a “city person,” but he has great appreciation and enthusiasm for cities as places where meaningful steps can be taken toward climate mitigation. In the episode of the Chalk Radio podcast embedded below, Prof. Hsu explains that urban planners can help move cities to take action to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from the construction, heating, power, and transport sectors. But he observes that the most lasting and successful actions are ones that are implemented democratically, with the consent and participation of the affected communities. To win over those communities, he says, technical experts have to learn to communicate solid facts using math that even a layperson can follow. And they need to learn that sometimes there can be more than one defensible position in response to a given problem—which is why Prof. Hsu often asks his students to read multiple papers that take conflicting positions on a particular problem, and to evaluate which paper’s (or papers’) arguments are more persuasive. Because in the end, it’s people who need to be persuaded to take action against climate change—solutions won’t implement themselves.
Lecture 1: Cities and Climate Action: Or, Why Take This Class? (PDF)
Lecture 2: Cities and Decarbonization (PDF)
Lecture 3: Cities and a Just Energy Transition (PDF)
Lecture 4: The Built Environment, Land Use, and Decarbonization (PDF)
Lecture 5: Energy and Personal Transport (PDF)
Lecture 6: Cities and Transport Systems (PDF)
Lecture 7: Transportation Systems: What Can Cities Do? (PDF)
Lecture 8: Buildings and Energy Efficiency (PDF)
Lecture 9: Building Energy Policies (PDF)
Lecture 10: Cities and the Idea of Energy Efficiency (PDF)
Lecture 11: Cities and Industrial Emissions (PDF)
Lecture 12: Cities, Future Fossil Fuel Use, CCUS, and Nuclear Energy (PDF)
Lecture 13: Cities and Renewable Energy, part 1: Wind (PDF)
Lecture 14: Cities and Renewable Energy, part 2: Solar (PDF)
Lecture 15: Cities and the Grid (PDF)
Note: Slides for lectures 16 through 22 are not available at this time.
[DM] = MacKay, David J.C. (2009). Sustainable Energy—Without the Hot Air, 1st ed. UIT Cambridge Ltd. ISBN: 9780954452933.
Session 1: Introduction
[DM] chapters 1, 2
Bill Gates. “Climate Change and the 75% Problem.” GatesNotes, October 17, 2018.
Nikayla Jefferson and Leah C. Stokes. “Our Racist Fossil Fuel Energy System.” BostonGlobe.com, July 13, 2020.
Miriam Wasser. “What to Know about the New Mass. Climate Law.” WBUR, July 22, 2022.
Amy Turner. “Cities and the Inflation Reduction Act.” Climate Law Blog, Columbia Law School, August 22, 2022.
[optional] David Hsu, Clinton J. Andrews, Albert T. Han, Carolyn G. Loh, Anna C. Osland, and P. Christopher Zegras, 2022. “Planning the Built Environment and Land Use towards Deep Decarbonization of the United States.” Journal of Planning Literature 0(0): 1–16.
Session 2: Cities and Decarbonization
James H. Williams, Ryan A. Jones, Ben Haley, Gabe Kwok, Jeremy Hargreaves, Jamil Farbes, and Margaret S. Torn (2021). “Carbon-Neutral Pathways for the United States.” AGU Advances 2(1): e2020AV000284.
David Roberts. “Cities Are Beginning to Own Up to the Climate Impacts of What They Consume.” Vox, July 1, 2019.
Angel Hsu, Niklas Höhne, Takeshi Kuramochi, Mark Roelfsema, Amy Weinfurter, Yihao Xie, Katharina Lütkehermöller, Sander Chan, Jan Corfee-Morlot, Philip Drost, Pedro Faria, Ann Gardiner, David J. Gordon, Thomas Hale, Nathan E. Hultman, John Moorhead, Shirin Reuvers, Joana Setzer, Neelam Singh, Christopher Weber, and Oscar Widerberg (2019). “A Research Roadmap for Quantifying Non-state and Subnational Climate Mitigation Action.” Nature Climate Change 9(1): 11–17.
Dan Tong, Qiang Zhang, Yixuan Zheng, Ken Caldeira, Christine Shearer, Chaopeng Hong, Yue Qin, and Steven J. Davis (2019). “Committed Emissions from Existing Energy Infrastructure Jeopardize 1.5 °C Climate Target.” Nature 572(7769): 373–377.
[optional] C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, University of Leeds, University of New South Wales, and Arup Partnerships. “Consumption-Based GHG Emissions of C40 Cities.” Technical report, 2019.
[optional] Samuel A Markolf, Inês M. L. Azevedo, Mark Muro, and David G Victor. “Pledges and Progress: Steps toward Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions in the 100 Largest Cities across the United States.” Technical report, Brookings Institution, October 2020.
Session 3: Equitable, Just Transition
Shalanda H Baker (2019). “Anti-Resilience: A Roadmap for Transformational Justice within the Energy System.” (PDF) Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 54: 1–48.
Sandeep Pai, Kathryn Harrison, and Hisham Zerriffi. “A Systematic Review of the Key Elements of a Just Transition for Fossil Fuel Workers.” Working paper, Smart Prosperity Institute, April 2020.
Erin Baker, Anna P. Goldstein, and Inês M.L. Azevedo (2021). “A Perspective on Equity Implications of Net Zero Energy Systems.” Energy and Climate Change 2: 100047.
[optional] Daniel Raimi, Aurora Barone, Sanya Carley, David Foster, Emily Grubert, Jake Higdon, Michael Kearney, David Konisky, Jennifer Michael, Gilbert Michaud, Sade Nabahe, Nina Peluso, Molly Robertson, and Tony Reames. “Policy Options to Enable an Equitable Energy Transition.” Technical report, Resources for the Future, April 2021
Session 4: Built Environment and Land Use
Ray Tomalty. “Carbon in the Bank: Ontario’s Greenbelt and Its Role in Mitigating Climate Change” (PDF - 2.9 MB). Technical report, David Suzuki Foundation, August 2012.
Ivan Penn. “A Gun-Owning Trump Fan’s New Crusade: Clean Energy.” The New York Times, February 28, 2018.
Jonathan Chait. “Will Local Politics Cook the Planet?” New York Magazine, January 25, 2022.
Francis Wilkinson. “The Solar Farm that Almost Destroyed Copake, N.Y.” Bloomberg.com, March 20, 2022.
Andrew Revkin. “When Climate Action Meets Energy Friction: Why Permitting Reform Is Easier Sought than Done.” Sustain What, August 23, 2022.
Session 5: Personal Transport
[DM] chapters 3, 20, technical chapter A
Marco Miotti, Geoffrey J. Supran, Ella J. Kim, and Jessika E. Trancik (2016). “Personal Vehicles Evaluated against Climate Change Mitigation Targets.” Environmental Science & Technology 50(20): 10795–10804.
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.
Victoria Penney. “Electric Cars Are Better for the Planet and Often Your Budget, Too.” New York Times, January 15, 2021.
Andrew J. Hawkins. “Yes, the New Electric Vehicle Tax Credits are Really Confusing, but We Can Help.” The Verge, August 17, 2022.
M.J. Bradley & Associates. “Financial Incentives for Electric Vehicles.” ERM Group, 2022.
Session 6: Transport Systems
[DM] chapter 5, technical chapter C
Mimi Sheller (2015). “Racialized Mobility Transitions in Philadelphia: Connecting Urban Sustainability and Transport Justice.” City & Society 27(1): 70–91.
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
Stefan Gössling and Andreas Humpe (2020). “The Global Scale, Distribution and Growth of Aviation: Implications for Climate Change.” Global Environmental Change 65: 102194.
[optional] Patrick Bigger, Johanna Bozuwa, Mijin Cha, Daniel Aldana Cohen, Billy Fleming, Yonah Freemark, Batul Hassan, Mark Paul, and Thea Riofrancos. “Inflation Reduction Act: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly” (PDF). Technical report, Climate and Community Project, 2022.
Session 7: Transportation Systems: What Can Cities Do?
Robert D. Bullard (2003). “Addressing Urban Transportation Equity in the United States.” Fordham Urban Law Journal 31(5): 1183.
Tim Gore. “Confronting Carbon Inequality: Putting Climate Justice at the Heart of the COVID-19 Recovery.” Policy paper, Oxfam International, September 2020.
Colin McKerracher, Aleksandra O’Donovan, Nikolas Soulopoulos, Andrew Grant, Siyi Mi, David Doherty, Ryan Fisher, Corey Cantor, Jinghong Lyu, Kwasi Ampofo, Andy Leach, Yayoi Sekine, Laura Malo Yague, William Edmonds, Komal Kareer, and Takehiro Kawahara. “Electric Vehicle Outlook 2022.” Technical report, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, 2022.
Session 8: Buildings and Energy Efficiency
[DM] chapters 7, 9, 11, technical chapter E
Deborah A. Sunter, Sergio Castellanos, and Daniel M. Kammen (2019). “Disparities in Rooftop Photovoltaics Deployment in the United States by Race and Ethnicity.” Nature Sustainability 2(1): 71–76.
Maximilian Auffhammer. “Consuming Energy While Black.” Blog post, Energy Institute at Haas, June 22, 2020.
Shuchen Cong, Destenie Nock, Yueming Lucy Qiu, and Bo Xing (2022). “Unveiling Hidden Energy Poverty Using the Energy Equity Gap.” Nature Communications 13(1): 2456.
Session 9: Building Energy Policies
Carl Blumstein, Betsy Krieg, Lee Schipper, and Carl York (1980). “Overcoming Social and Institutional Barriers to Energy Conservation.” Energy 5(4): 355–371.
Ian G. Hamilton, Alex J. Summerfield, Robert Lowe, Paul Ruyssevelt, Clifford A. Elwell, and Tadj Oreszczyn (2013). “Energy Epidemiology: A New Approach to End-Use Energy Demand Research.” Building Research & Information 41(4): 482–497.
Tianzhen Hong, Da Yan, Simona D’Oca, and Chien-Fei Chen. “Ten Questions Concerning Occupant Behavior in Buildings: The Big Picture.” Building and Environment 114: 518–530.
Arsalan Heydarian, Claire McIlvennie, Laura Arpan, Siavash Yousefi, Marc Syndicus, Marcel Schweiker, Farrokh Jazizadeh, Romina Rissetto, Anna Laura Pisello, Cristina Piselli, Christiane Berger, Zhuxuan Yan, and Ardeshir Mahdavi (2020). “What Drives our Behaviors in Buildings? A Review on Occupant Interactions with Building Systems from the Lens of Behavioral Theories.” Building and Environment 179: 106928.
Session 10: Energy Efficiency
[DM] chapters 19, 21, 22
Elizabeth Shove (2018). “What Is Wrong with Energy Efficiency?” Building Research & Information 46(7): 779–789.
Jonathan M. Cullen and Julian M. Allwood (2010). “The Efficient Use of Energy: Tracing the Global Flow of Energy from Fuel to Service.” Energy Policy 38(1): 75–81.
Jonathan M. Cullen and Julian M. Allwood (2010). “Theoretical Efficiency Limits for Energy Conversion Devices.” Energy 35(5): 2059–2069.
[optional] Saul Griffith, Sam Calisch, and Laura Fraser. “The Rewiring America Handbook: A Guide to Winning the Climate Fight.” Technical report, Rewiring America, July 2020.
Session 11: Industry, Making Stuff
[DM] chapter 15, technical chapter H
Bill Gates. “Here’s a Question You Should Ask about Every Climate Change Plan.” GatesNotes, August 27, 2019.
Max Åhman, Lars J. Nilsson, and Bengt Johansson (2017). “Global Climate Policy and Deep Decarbonization of Energy-Intensive Industries.” Climate Policy 17(5):634–649.
Jeffrey Rissman, Chris Bataille, Eric Masanet, Nate Aden, William R. Morrow, Nan Zhou, Neal Elliott, Rebecca Dell, Niko Heeren, Brigitta Huckestein, Joe Cresko, Sabbie A. Miller, Joyashree Roy, Paul Fennell, Betty Cremmins, Thomas Koch Blank, David Hone, Ellen D. Williams, Stephane de la Rue du Can, Bill Sisson, Mike Williams, John Katzenberger, Dallas Burtraw, Girish Sethi, He Ping, David Danielson, Hongyou Lu, Tom Lorber, Jens Dinkel, and Jonas Helseth (2020). “Technologies and Policies to Decarbonize Global Industry: Review and Assessment of Mitigation Drivers through 2070.” Applied Energy 266: 114848.
Session 12: Fossil, CCUS, and Nuclear
[DM] chapters 23–24
David Roberts. “Sucking Carbon out of the Air Won’t Solve Climate Change.” Vox, June 14, 2018.
David W. Keith, Geoffrey Holmes, David St Angelo, and Kenton Heidel (2018). “A Process for Capturing CO2 from the Atmosphere.” Joule 2(8): 1573–1594.
Ryan Orbuch. “Stripe’s First Carbon Removal Purchases.” Stripe, May 18, 2020.
Nestor A. Sepulveda, Jesse D. Jenkins, Fernando J. de Sisternes, and Richard K. Lester (2018). “The Role of Firm Low-Carbon Electricity Resources in Deep Decarbonization of Power Generation.” Joule 2(11): 2403–2420.
Edwin Lyman and John Mecklin. “The Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant: Assessing the Seismic Risks of Extended Operation.” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, August 15, 2022.
Session 13: Renewable Resources
[DM] chapters 4, 6, 8, 10, 16, 18, technical chapters B, D
William H. Schlesinger (2018). “Are Wood Pellets a Green Fuel?” Science 359(6382): 1328–1329.
U.S. Department of Energy. “Computing Americas Offshore Wind Energy Potential.” September 2016.
U.S. Department of Energy. “Simple Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) Calculator Documentation.” Energy Analysis | NREL.
Lazard. Lazard’s Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis 15.0 (PDF), p. 20. October 2021.
Session 14: Siting Renewables
[DM] chapters 10, 16, 18
David J. C. MacKay (2013). “Could Energy-Intensive Industries Be Powered by Carbon-Free Electricity?” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 371(1986): 20110560.
David J. C. MacKay (2013). “Solar Energy in the Context of Energy Use, Energy Transportation and Energy Storage.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 371(1996): 20110431.
Sanya Carley, David M. Konisky, Zoya Atiq, and Nick Land (2020). “Energy Infrastructure, NIMBYism, and Public Opinion: A Systematic Literature Review of Three Decades of Empirical Survey Literature.” Environmental Research Letters 15(9): 093007.
Lawrence Susskind, Jungwoo Chun, Alexander Gant, Chelsea Hodgkins, Jessica Cohen, and Sarah Lohmar (2022). “Sources of Opposition to Renewable Energy Projects in the United States.” Energy Policy 165: 112922.
Session 15: Distributed Resources
[DM] chapters 25–27
Micah S. Ziegler, Joshua M. Mueller, Gonçalo D. Pereira, Juhyun Song, Marco Ferrara, Yet-Ming Chiang, and Jessika E. Trancik (2019). “Storage Requirements and Costs of Shaping Renewable Energy Toward Grid Decarbonization.” Joule 3(9): 2134–2153.
Lazard. Lazard’s Levelized Cost of Storage Analysis 7.0 (PDF), page 20, October 2020.
Bjorn Brandtzaeg, Patrick Brown, Kevin Huang, and Johannes Pfeifenberger. “The Future of Energy Storage,” Executive Summary (PDF). Technical report, MIT Energy Initiative, 2022.
Ivan Penn. “A Solar Firm Plans to Build Off-Grid Neighborhoods in California.” New York Times, September 1, 2022.
Nicole Wetsman. “Tesla Quietly Built a Virtual Power Plant in Japan.” The Verge, August 29, 2022.
Sessions 16, 17
[Exam prep and midterm exam—no readings assigned]
Session 18: “The Grid” System
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Energy Primer: A Handbook of Energy Market Basics (PDF - 10.5 MB), chapters 1, 3, 5, 6. Technical report, 2015.
Session 19: “The Grid” Continued
Keith Dennis, Ken Colburn, and Jim Lazar (2016). “Environmentally Beneficial Electrification: The Dawn of ‘Emissions Efficiency.’” The Electricity Journal 29(6): 52–58.
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.
[read one sector] U.S. Department of Energy. “Electrification Futures Study: A Technical Evaluation of the Impacts of an Electrified U.S. Energy System.” NREL Energy Analysis. Accessed August 23, 2022.
Session 20: Regulation
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
Ari Peskoe (2010). “A Challenge for Federalism: Achieving National Goals in the Electricity Industry” (PDF - 4.1 MB). Missouri Environmental Law & Policy Review 18: 209–281.
Scott Hempling (2012). “Promoting Diversity and Prohibiting Discrimination: Is There a Regulatory Obligation to Society?” (PDF).
Session 21: Ownership
Richard F. Hirsh (2013). “Fifteen Years Later: Whither Restructuring in the American Electric Utility System?” Technology’s Stories 1(1)
Michael Wara (2016). “Fostering Competition in the 21st Century Electricity Industry.” Harvard Environmental Law Review 40(2): 41–48.
John E. Kwoka, Jr. (2005). “The Comparative Advantage of Public Ownership: Evidence from U.S. Electric Utilities.” Canadian Journal of Economics / Revue canadienne d’économique 38(2): 622–640.
Herman K. Trabish. “A Utility in the Making: The Municipalization of Boulder, Colorado.” Utility Dive, August 27, 2014.
Herman K. Trabish. “IOU, Co-op or Muni? Experts Debate the Creation of Public Utilities.” Utility Dive, September 16, 2015.
Herman K. Trabish. “California IOU Rates Found to be Twice the Cost of Muni Power.” Utility Dive, June 17, 2015.
Herman K. Trabish. “As 100% Renewables Goals Proliferate, What Role for Utilities?” Utility Dive, April 2, 2019.
David Roberts. “A Major US Utility is Moving toward 100% Clean Energy Faster than Expected.” Vox, December 5, 2018.
Session 22: Scales and Choices
Michael Wara (2016). “Competition at the Grid Edge: Innovation and Antitrust Law in the Electricity Sector.” New York University Environmental Law Journal, 25(2): 176–222.
Ari Peskoe (2021). “Is the Utility Transmission Syndicate Forever?” SSRN Scholarly Paper ID 3770740.
Vote Solar, MnSEIA, and the Institute for Local Self Reliance. “Minnesota’s Solar Gardens: The Status and Benefits of Community Solar” (PDF - 3.7 MB) Technical report, May 2019.
[skim] Richard J Campbell. “Customer Choice and the Power Industry of the Future” (PDF). CRS Report R43742, Congressional Research Service, January 2016.
[skim] Rocky Mountain Institute. “The Economics of Load Defection: How Grid-Connected Solar-Plus-Battery Systems Will Compete with Traditional Electric Service, Why it Matters, and Possible Paths Forward.” Technical report, Rocky Mountain Institute, 2015.
Session 23: Possible Futures
Tineke van der Schoor, Harro van Lente, Bert Scholtens, and Alexander Peine (2016). “Challenging Obduracy: How Local Communities Transform the Energy System.” Energy Research & Social Science 13: 94–105.
Efrain O’Neill-Carrillo, Isaac Jordán, Agustín Irizarry-Rivera, and Rafael Cintrón (2018). “The Long Road to Community Microgrids: Adapting to the Necessary Changes for Renewable Energy Implementation.” IEEE Electrification Magazine 6(4): 6–17.
David Hsu (202). “Straight out of Cape Cod: The Origin of Community Choice Aggregation and Its Spread to Other States.” Energy Research & Social Science 86: 102393.
[skim] Ignacio Pérez-Arriaga and Christopher Knittel. The Utility of the Future (PDF - 11 MB). Technical report, MIT Energy Initiatve, 2016.
Sessions 24–26
[DM] chapter 13
[skim] Global Carbon Project (GCP). “Global Methane Budget.” Technical report, July 2020.
Diana Pape, Jan Lewandrowski, Rachel Steele, Derina Man, Marybeth Riley-Gilbert, Katrin Moffroid, and Sarah Kolansky. “Managing Agricultural Land for Greenhouse Gas Mitigation within the United States” (PDF - 4 MB). Technical report, ICF International, July 2016.
Xiongxiong Bai, Yawen Huang, Wei Ren, Mark Coyne, Pierre-Andre Jacinthe, Bo Tao, Dafeng Hui, Jian Yang, and Chris Matocha (2019). “Responses of Soil Carbon Sequestration to Climate-Smart Agriculture Practices: A Meta-analysis.” Global Change Biology 25(8): 2591–2606.
Ray Tomalty. “Carbon in the Bank—Ontario’s Greenbelt and Its Role in Mitigating Climate Change.” Technical report, David Suzuki Foundation, August 2012.
A. M. Nahlik and M. S. Fennessy (2016). “Carbon Storage in US Wetlands.” Nature Communications 7(1): 13835.
Course Meeting Times
2 sessions / week, 1.5 hrs / session
Prerequisites
None
Course Description
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 for the following reasons:
- Cities are centers of economic activity, population, and energy and material consumption.
- Cities, not nations, are making the most ambitious commitments towards climate goals.
- This scale reveals inequality, racism, and environmental justice issues in the energy system.
- The relationship of users to the energy system has been static for nearly a century.
- New information and data technologies are rapidly changing the built environment.
- Developing countries could leapfrog existing technologies, and many developed countries need to replace existing systems.
This course is designed for any students interested in learning how to intervene in the energy use of cities using policy, technology, economics, and urban planning. I welcome students with many different backgrounds because it enriches our discussions, but some of the following rationales for this course may also appeal to you:
- For planners, there are many jobs in this area that will shape how we use energy in the future. This class will integrate fundamental technical understanding with your policy skills so you can tackle the inevitable energy and climate issues that will affect all communities in the future.
- For engineers, 54% of all people now live in cities that generate 70% of world carbon emissions and 80% of world GDP; by 2050, 66% of the world’s population is expected to be urban. The focus of this class on urban energy use, efficiency, jurisdiction, institutions, and governance complements many other more technical classes at MIT.
- For climate change: given the uncertain prospects of national and international efforts, efforts in cities may be the fastest and most pragmatic solution.
These topics are especially exciting in this place and this year, given that the US Congress has passed its first climate legislation in thirty years, and Massachusetts continues to pass aggressive climate legislation.
Learning Objectives
- Learn about the role and potential of cities and users to shape the energy system
- Develop understanding of energy systems, infrastructure, and technology in cities
- Develop ability to do simple back-of-the-envelope calculations
- Understand what an equitable energy transition will look like
- Identify key points or issues for future management, intervention, or revolution
- Work together with a diverse group of people and disciplines
Structure of the Course
The semester is divided into two halves:
- In the first segment you will learn which basic calculations to perform in order to analyze one or two cities (more on that later), and we will learn about key technical aspects of energy systems in all cities.
- In the second segment we will examine the policies and institutions governing urban energy systems, with a particular focus on regulation and markets of the electricity sector in the US. Discussion and feedback will help you build up the base of knowledge and material that you need to write your paper.
Putting the two halves together will help you decide where and how to intervene in urban energy systems.
Activities
In the beginning of class, we will build a composite picture of our class, using our personal experiences and visions for the future to energy systems that you are familiar with. Please calculate the current carbon emissions for yourself and/or an average resident for where (a) you lived before MIT and (b) where and how you think you will live in 2050, using the CoolClimate calculator.
For each lecture, we will be “flipping” the classroom; I will record a before class that highlights key issues from the reading material and that sets the stage for our class exercises and discussion. Then, in each class, we will discuss (a) recent news developments, (b) the class assignment, which will take the form of short problem sets that either test you on reading comprehension or basic calculation exercises, and (c) a student will volunteer to help stimulate discussion and debate about the complex aspects of cities, climate, and energy (the fun part!).
Readings
The primary text for the class is:
- MacKay, David J.C., 2009. Sustainable Energy—Without the Hot Air, 1st ed., UIT Cambridge Ltd. ISBN: 9780954452933. This can be downloaded legally as a PDF or read in webpage format here.
Other papers assigned for each class are listed on the page. I may occasionally modify the weekly readings, in which case I will notify you in advance.
Optional companion books focusing on materials and food may interest some of you:
- Allwood, Julian M., and Jonathan M. Cullen. 2012. Sustainable Materials: With Both Eyes Open. UIT Cambridge Ltd. ISBN: 9781906860059. This can be downloaded legally as a PDF or read in webpage format here.
- 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.
Regular News Reading
You should do regular readings to educate yourself during the class—and beyond!—on specific areas of interest. I will start most classroom days with a brief discussion about current events related to our reading. News services have greatly expanded their coverage of energy, climate, as well as related policies and legislation.
- Many major newspapers allow you to subscribe to climate- and energy-specific newsletters. Examples: the New York Times (Climate Forward); the Washington Post (Climate 202); the Wall Street Journal (WSJ Climate & Energy); the Financial Times (Climate Capital); the Boston Globe (Into the Red); the Los Angeles Times (Boiling Point).
- Magazines and journals such as the New Yorker (Bill McKibben, Elizabeth Kolbert) and the Atlantic (Robinson Meyer)
- E&E News
Other news and commentary outlets that have excellent climate coverage, including:
- U.S. and regional Energy News Networks. These newsletters are an excellent source of local and regional energy news.
- Twitter is surprisingly useful if you follow the right people and are not distracted by cute puppy videos.
It is all too much to read everyday, but learning what and how to pay attention to things that interest you is a valuable way to see what people in the energy and climate spaces are talking about. I welcome any news suggestions that you all want to discuss (the quirkier, the better!).
Schedule and Topics
Session 1: Introduction: Welcome!
Session 2: Introduction: Cities and Decarbonization; problem set 1 due
Session 3: Introduction: Equitable, Just Transition; problem set 2 due
Session 4: Built Environment and Land Use; problem set 3 due
Session 5: Consumption: Personal Transport; problem set 4 due
Session 6: Consumption: Transport Systems; problem set 5 due
Session 7: Consumption: Transportation Systems: What Can Cities Do?; problem set 6 due
Session 8: Consumption: Buildings and Energy Efficiency; problem set 7 due
Session 9: Consumption: Building Energy Policies; problem set 8 due
Session 10: Consumption: Energy Efficiency; problem set 9 due
Session 11: Sources and Systems: Industry and Making Stuff; problem set 10 due
Session 12: Sources and Systems: Fossil, CCUS, and Nuclear; problem set 11 due
Session 13: Sources and Systems: Renewable Resources; problem set 12 due
Session 14: Sources and Systems: Siting Renewables; problem set 13 due
Session 15: Sources and Systems: Distributed Resources; problem set 14 due
Session 16: Midterm exam
Session 17: Policy and Institutions: “The Grid” System; problem set 15 due
Session 18: Policy and Institutions: “The Grid” Continued; problem set 16 due
Session 19: Policy and Institutions: Regulation; problem set 17 due
Session 20: Policy and Institutions: Ownership; problem set 18 due
Session 21: Policy and Institutions: Scales and Choices; problem set 19 due
Session 22: Policy and Institutions: Possible Futures; problem set 20 due
Session 23: Wrapping Up: Group-led discussion 1
Session 24: Wrapping Up: Group-led discussion 2
Session 25: Wrapping Up: Group-led discussion 3
Session 26: Wrapping Up: Final papers due
Grading
Expectations/Norms
- Watch the video lecture, do the reading, and submit your problem sets or questions the day before class.
- Ask questions and contribute insights for everyone’s learning.
- Focus on class discussion and lecture, i.e., use technology effectively and only as needed.
Grade Breakdown
- Before class prep: problem sets and reading questions 20%
- Class presence/discussion/participation 15%
- Exam 25%
- Paper proposal 5%
- Short presentation, group discussion 5%
- Final paper 30%
Please make an effort to be on time for class, and please let me know in advance if you will miss class. Missing more than two classes will affect your participation / discussion grade.
Assignments and Due Dates
Before each class, watching my video lecture, doing the reading and a basic calculation exercise will help build up your understanding of what numbers matter, as well as your background knowledge of a particular city. We will reinforce the knowledge with an exam, but if you watch the lecture and do the reading, calculation, and homework for each class, then the exam should be fairly straightforward.
The final paper assignment will synthesize what you learn over the semester by considering the prospects for a technological or policy innovation in a city of your choosing (I recommend your home or future city). Undergraduates will be expected to write a short paper of 8 pages minimum. Graduate students will write a paper of 12 pages minimum, with the additional task of analyzing their chosen city in terms of its expected future demographic changes.
We will have group discussions in the last three classes to share knowledge from our papers. This is also a good chance to put finishing touches on your final paper. Writing a good paper is much easier if you plan ahead, get feedback or help from your classmates, the MIT Writing and Communication Center, and myself, and have time to revise.
Problem sets and reading questions are due by midnight (11:59 pm) the day before class. Earlier is better for your sleep, though! For more details on the expectations for the assignments, see the page.
Extensions
Each person is allowed to miss up to 3 problem sets and reading questions, which are assessed automatically if you miss the midnight deadline. I can’t give any extensions for the final paper because grades are due three days after the end of class, so plan ahead for this. In cases of extreme physical or emotional circumstances, any further extensions should be requested from the Office of Graduate Education; if they decide that an extension is warranted, they will then send me a generic note, which preserves your privacy.
Academic Integrity
Plagiarism, unauthorized collaboration, cheating, and facilitating academic dishonesty are academic crimes. It is your responsibility as students and scholars to understand the definition of any such activities, and to avoid and discourage them. Engaging in these activities either knowingly or unknowingly may result in severe academic sanctions, and you are therefore expected to familiarize yourself with MIT’s academic integrity policies.