Descriptif

PHY 555 Energy & Environment is a thermodynamics course where the current state and the upcoming challenges of our energy system are derived from basic physics. This course has 3 objectives:

1. Provide a general culture of energy related topics
2. Develop engineering skills (order of magnitudes, rules of thumb, tradeoffs…)
3. Build up physical understanding (working principles, ultimate efficiencies…)

Lectures introduce the current state of the main energy sectors, and derive orders of magnitudes, scaling laws and limiting factors from first principles. Tutorials allow students to investigate technical details and to perform calculations by themselves.

The final grade is built on weekly online quizzes, a homework assignment and a final exam.

There is no strict requirement to attend to this course, but a good knowledge of basic physics (mechanics, fluid mechanics, quantum mechanics and thermodynamics) is certainly helpful. No advanced concepts will be used, but we will rely on many different basics ideas.

Lecture 1: Introduction to the energy transition

Lecture 2: Welcome to a finite world (resource exhaustion, climate change)

Lecture 3: Fossil fuels: oil, gas and coal

Lecture 4: Heat engines: from cars to power plants

Lecture 5: Nuclear energy: fission and fusion

Lecture 6: Solar energy: thermal, chemical and electrical

Lecture 7: Wind & hydro: mechanical energies

Lecture 8: Thermal energy

Lecture 9: Electricity: grid and storage