E^3: Extreme Energy Efficiency

Be part of a unique course about extreme energy efficiency and integrative design! We will meet once a week throughout the quarter. The course will focus on efficiency techniques’ design, performance, choice, evolution, integration, barrier-busting, profitable business-led implementation, and implications for energy supply, competitive success, environment, development, security, etc. Examples will span very diverse sectors, applications, issues, and disciplines, covering different energy themes throughout the quarter: buildings, transportation, industry, and implementation and implications, including renewable energy synergy and integration.

Solid technical grounding and acquaintance with basic economics and business concepts will be helpful. The course will be composed of keynote lectures, exercises, and interactive puzzlers synthesizing integrative design principles. Exercises will illuminate challenges RMI has faced and solutions it has created in real-world design. Students will explore clean-sheet solutions that meet end-use demands and optimize whole-system resource efficiency, often with expanding rather than diminishing returns to investments, i.e. making big savings cheaper than small ones. Students will work closely and interactively with instructors including Amory Lovins, co-founder and chairman emeritus of RMI, and Dr. Joel Swisher, former RMI managing director and Stanford instructor.