- From www.coursera.org
Our Energy Future
- Self-paced
- Free Access
- Fee-based Certificate
- 9 Sequences
- Introductive Level
- Subtitles in Spanish
Course details
Syllabus
- Week 1 - General Course Materials
Course overview materials, including syllabus, lecturer information, grading criteria, and external notices and resources. - Week 1 - Introduction to Energy
Introduces the basics of energy, covers finite energy sources like petroleum, looks at how energy and food are related, and examines the scale of current and future energy consumption and what renewable energy options can meet that demand. - Week 2 - Physical Energy Sources
Looks at some of the alternative energy options from the physical sciences domain, including wind energy, photovoltaic and photothermal energy, and nuclear energy. It also covers energy storage and electric vehicles, and energy efficiency and smart grid techno... - Week 3 - Introduction to Biological Energy Sources
Provides an overview of the different biological energy sources including plants and algae. It explains what biofuels are, how they are produced, and the pros and cons of different biological sources. - Week 4 - Plant Biofuel
Discusses various plant-based fuels including corn ethanol, cellulosic ethanol, and jatropha biodiesel. It will cover the different technologies used, the pros and cons of each source, and current production around the world. - Week 5 - Algae Biofuel
Examines different algae used for biofuel production including cyanobacteria, diatoms, and green algae. It looks at how these organisms are different and why they are used to produce biofuels and bio-products. Additionally, the module covers the different too... - Week 6 - Biofuel Production and Downstream Processing
Covers the chemistry of biodiesel, looks at the different thermochemical processes used to convert biomass to fuel, and examines renewable biogas. It also looks at the production process of algae biofuel, how and why nutrient utilization and recycling is impor... - Week 7 - Social Issues, Economics, and Politics
Examines how energy production and use affects the economy, our wellbeing, and our heath. It will also look at how energy impacts the poorest communities, the external costs of traditional energy, and how we can regulate energy and incentivize renewable energy... - Week 8 - Climate Change
Looks at the history of research on how carbon dioxide causes climate change, the key points of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s reporting, and how climate change is portrayed in the media. Also, it discusses the importance of decreasing Short-l... - Week 9 - Office Hours
Recordings of live office hours from Dr. Mayfield and other course lecturers.
Prerequisite
None.
Instructors
Dr. Stephen Mayfield
Professor of Molecular Biology
University of California San Diego
Editor
The University of California, San Diego is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is the southernmost of the University of California's ten campuses and offers more than 200 undergraduate and graduate degree programs, enrolling 33,096 undergraduate students and 9,872 graduate students.
UC San Diego is considered one of the best universities in the world. Several publications have ranked UC San Diego's Departments of Biological Sciences and Computer Science among the top 10 in the world.
Platform
Coursera is a digital company offering massive open online course founded by computer teachers Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller Stanford University, located in Mountain View, California.
Coursera works with top universities and organizations to make some of their courses available online, and offers courses in many subjects, including: physics, engineering, humanities, medicine, biology, social sciences, mathematics, business, computer science, digital marketing, data science, and other subjects.
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