Readings

Here is a list of readings for the course. All readings are available on Brightspace.

Lecture 1

• IEA “Net Zero by 2050” (International Energy Agency, 2021), https://www.iea.org/reports/net-zero-by-2050.
• IRENA “Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2021” (Abu Dhabi: International Renewable Energy Agency, July 2021), https://www.irena.org/publications/2022/Jul/Renewable-Power-Generation-Costs-in-2021.
• Gang He et al. “Rapid Cost Decrease of Renewables and Storage Accelerates the Decarbonization of China’s Power System,” Nature Communications 11, no. 1 (May 19, 2020): 2486, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16184-x.
• Neil Grant et al. “Cost Reductions in Renewables Can Substantially Erode the Value of Carbon Capture and Storage in Mitigation Pathways,” One Earth 4, no. 11 (November 19, 2021): 1588–1601, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2021.10.024.
• William W. Hogan “Energy Modeling for Policy Studies,” Operations Research 50, no. 1 (February 1, 2002): 89–95, https://doi.org/10.1287/opre.50.1.89.17803.
• Hillard G Huntington, John P Weyant, and James L Sweeney “Modeling for Insights, Not Numbers: The Experiences of the Energy Modeling Forum,” Omega 10, no. 5 (1982): 449–62, https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-0483(82)90002-0.
• Katherine Richardson et al. “Earth Beyond Six of Nine Planetary Boundaries,” Science Advances 9, no. 37 (September 13, 2023): eadh2458, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adh2458.
• Will Steffen et al. “The Anthropocene: From Global Change to Planetary Stewardship,” Ambio 40, no. 7 (November 2011): 739–61, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-011-0185-x.

Lecture 2

• Weston A Hermann “Quantifying Global Exergy Resources,” Energy 31, no. 12 (2006): 1685–1702, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360544205001805.
• Jonathan Koomey et al. “Defining a Standard Metric for Electricity Savings,” Environmental Research Letters 5, no. 1 (2010): 014017, https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/5/1/014017.
• David Fridley et al. “Impacts of China’s 2010 to 2013 Mandatory Product Energy Efficiency Standards: A Retrospective and Prospective Look” (ACEEE, 2016), https://www.aceee.org/files/proceedings/2016/data/papers/5_131.pdf.
• Jordan Macknick “Energy and CO2 Emission Data Uncertainties,” Carbon Management 2, no. 2 (April 1, 2011): 189–205, https://doi.org/10.4155/cmt.11.10.
• James Hansen, Makiko Sato, and Reto Ruedy “Perception of Climate Change,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109, no. 37 (September 2012): E2415–23, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1205276109.
• Martin L Weitzman “Gamma Discounting,” American Economic Review 91, no. 1 (2001): 260–71, https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.91.1.260.
• K. Arrow et al. “Determining Benefits and Costs for Future Generations,” Science 341, no. 6144 (July 26, 2013): 349–50, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1235665.
• Louis E. Yelle “The Learning Curve: Historical Review and Comprehensive Survey,” Decision Sciences 10, no. 2 (1979): 302–28, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5915.1979.tb00026.x.
• Arnulf Grübler, Nebojša Nakićenović, and David G Victor “Dynamics of Energy Technologies and Global Change,” Energy Policy 27, no. 5 (May 1999): 247–80, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0301-4215(98)00067-6.
• Goksin Kavlak, James McNerney, and Jessika E. Trancik “Evaluating the Causes of Cost Reduction in Photovoltaic Modules,” Energy Policy 123 (December 1, 2018): 700–710, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2018.08.015.
• Arnulf Grubler “The Costs of the French Nuclear Scale-up: A Case of Negative Learning by Doing,” Energy Policy 38, no. 9 (2010): 5174–88, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2010.05.003.
• John Helveston, Gang He, and Michael Davidson “Quantifying the Cost Savings of Global Solar Photovoltaic Supply Chains,” Nature 612, no. 7938 (2022): 83–87, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05316-6.
• Shangwei Liu et al. “Can China Break the ‘Cost Curse’ of Nuclear Power?” Nature 643, no. 8074 (July 2025): 1186–88, https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-02341-z.

Lecture 3

• IPCC Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group i to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Book, ed. V. Masson-Delmotte et al. (Cambridge, UK; New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press, 2021), https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009157896.
• Tamma A Carleton and Solomon M Hsiang “Social and Economic Impacts of Climate,” Science 353, no. 6304 (2016): aad9837, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aad9837.
• James E. Neumann et al. “Climate Damage Functions for Estimating the Economic Impacts of Climate Change in the United States,” Review of Environmental Economics and Policy 14, no. 1 (January 2020): 25–43, https://doi.org/10.1093/reep/rez021.
• Valuing Climate Changes: Updating Estimation of the Social Cost of Carbon Dioxide (Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2017), https://doi.org/10.17226/24651.
• Solomon M. Hsiang, Marshall Burke, and Edward Miguel “Quantifying the Influence of Climate on Human Conflict,” Science, August 2013, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1235367.
• Seleshi G Yalew et al. “Impacts of Climate Change on Energy Systems in Global and Regional Scenarios,” Nature Energy 5, no. 10 (2020): 794–802, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-020-0664-z.
• Laibao Liu et al. “Climate Change Impacts on Planned Supply–Demand Match in Global Wind and Solar Energy Systems,” Nature Energy 8, no. 8 (August 2023): 870–80, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-023-01304-w.

Lecture 4

• Vaclav Smil Energy: A Beginner’s Guide (Simon; Schuster, 2017), https://vaclavsmil.com/2017/02/21/energy-a-beginners-guide-beginners-guides-2nd-edition/.
• IEA “Net Zero by 2050.”
• BMWi “An Electricity Market for Germany’s Energy Transition: White Paper by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy” (Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs; Energy, July 2015), https://www.bmwk.de/Redaktion/EN/Publikationen/whitepaper-electricity-market.html.
• Koomey et al. “Defining a Standard Metric for Electricity Savings.”

Lecture 5

• Lukas G. Swan and V. Ismet Ugursal “Modeling of End-Use Energy Consumption in the Residential Sector: A Review of Modeling Techniques,” Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 13, no. 8 (2009): 1819–35, https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2008.09.033.
• Paul R Ehrlich and John P Holdren “Impact of Population Growth: Complacency Concerning This Component of Man’s Predicament Is Unjustified and Counterproductive.” Science 171, no. 3977 (1971): 1212–17, https://doi.org/10.1097/00006254-197111000-00014.
• Jiang Lin, Gang He, and Alexandria Yuan “Economic Rebalancing and Electricity Demand in China,” The Electricity Journal 29, no. 3 (2016): 48–54, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tej.2016.03.010.
• Severin Borenstein “A Microeconomic Framework for Evaluating Energy Efficiency Rebound and Some Implications,” The Energy Journal 36, no. 1 (2015), https://doi.org/10.5547/01956574.36.1.1.
• Paul E Brockway et al. “Energy Efficiency and Economy-Wide Rebound Effects: A Review of the Evidence and Its Implications,” Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 141 (2021): 110781, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2021.110781.
• Donella H Meadows et al. “The Limits to Growth,” in Green Planet Blues (Routledge, 2018), 25–29.
• Narasimha D Rao and Jihoon Min “Decent Living Standards: Material Prerequisites for Human Wellbeing,” Social Indicators Research 138, no. 1 (2018): 225–44, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-017-1650-0.
• Tao Hong and Shu Fan “Probabilistic Electric Load Forecasting: A Tutorial Review,” International Journal of Forecasting 32, no. 3 (2016): 914–38, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijforecast.2015.11.011.