Clean Power

Offered By: Imperial College London via edX

Course Description

Overview

The power sector is at a critical juncture. We urgently need to reduce the fossil fuel intensity of our power generation mix and, in many countries, power sector reform can bring other benefits, such as improvements in health and economic growth. In this program, leading academics from Imperial College London, alongside NREL and experts from industry, will explain why and how to clean up the power sector in your country, illustrated with current, real-life case studies and practical advice. Key global figures from the public and private sector add their own personal and professional perspectives to this course.

The Clean Power Program includes best-practice power sector reform policies from the perspectives of legislators, policymakers, the energy sector, investors and civil society. The first course will explain the way that clean power fits into a wider set of political priorities, such as health, technology, energy security, economic growth and the environment, in any country or region. In the second course, the policy landscape for the power sector is described in detail, demonstrating how policies can help stimulate the growth of clean power. The third course outlines the challenges and solutions to integrating different types of power sources into one stable, reliable system.

This program will equip you with the knowledge and tools to create a pro-renewables and investor-ready policy environment in your own region. In a world committed to meeting the climate change goals in the Paris Agreement, you will be well-informed to apply solutions in your own context.

Syllabus

Courses under this program:
Course 1: Why Move Towards Cleaner Power

Learn why we need to clean up our power supply, and why is it urgent that we take action now. Gain the tools you need to present arguments in favour of a cleaner power sector in your part of the world

Course 2: Creating a Pro-Renewables Environment

Understand the policy, regulatory and fiscal measures that can incentivise renewable power and drive cleaner investment along the entire electricity supply chain

Course 3: Incorporating Renewable Energy in Electricity Grids

Learn how to manage high shares of variable renewable electricity sources to achieve cost-effective and reliable electricity supplies

Courses

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5 weeks, 2-5 hours a week, 2-5 hours a week
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This course looks at how increasing greenhouse gases are warming the climate and what it means to decarbonise - reduce the greenhouse gas intensity of - the power sector. It will also provide a range of arguments in favour of decarbonisation, including consideration of ease of access to a secure and affordable energy supply and improvements to health and the environment.

This course gathers together information about these different motivating factors for building a lower carbon power sector in one place, and includes a careful consideration of the importance of the political context. This course will challenge you to critically analyse your own political context.

We would welcome advisors to senior decision makers in government, civil society activists and others interested in understanding and promoting renewable electricity to take this course. This course will help you develop a better understanding of the different dimensions of a move towards a cleaner power sector and develop more nuanced and detailed arguments.
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6 weeks, 2-5 hours a week, 2-5 hours a week
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This course provides the tools needed to build a low-carbon power sector around the world. By diving into the perspective of different players in the power sector - from investors through to utilities, regulators and project developers - you will be able to choose the right strategies, policies and other levers needed to incentivise a cleaner power mix in your own context.

This course explores the mix of approaches that can create a pro-renewables environment. It explores this from a policy, regulatory and supply-chain perspective and examines the incentives and rules available. Key policies are brought to life through case studies, learning from both success and failure.

Key messages of the course include:
- Ambitions for renewable electricity must be grounded in technical and financial feasibility
- Pro-renewables environments recognise the needs of energy supply chain actors (e.g. project developers, utilities, regulators, electricity customers) and balances pricing, fiscal and financial and wider policies to incentivise and drive deployment
- There are multiple ways to encourage deployment of renewables across different scales – these have strengths and weaknesses and must balance rate of deployment, affordability and efficiency of generation
- Incentives and rules are a package and can be aligned to deliver affordable, efficient renewable electricity - several real-world examples demonstrate this
- Different countries have succeeded and failed in creating pro-renewables environments – demonstrating that while lessons can be used from these experiences, there is no single route to success and the environment must be bespoke to the circumstances of the country.
This course should help decision makers across the electricity supply chain, in both the public and private sector, understand what mix of incentives is ideal from their perspective.
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6 weeks, 2-5 hours a week, 2-5 hours a week
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Wind turbines and solar panels are likely to play a critical role in achieving a low-carbon power sector that helps address climate change and local pollution, resulting from fossil fuel power generation. Because wind and solar power output is weather-dependent, it is variable in nature and somewhat more uncertain than output from conventional fossil fuel generators. It is therefore important to consider how to manage high penetrations of solar and wind so as to maintain electricity system reliability.

This introductory course, delivered by Ieading academics from Imperial College London, with technical input and contributions from the National Energy Renewable Lab (Golden, Colorado), will discuss what challenges variable output renewables pose to the achievability of a reliable, stable electricity system, how these challenges can be addressed and at what costs. Its overall objective is to demonstrate that there is already a range of established technologies, policies and operating procedures to achieve a flexible, stable, reliable electricity system with a high penetration of renewables such as wind and solar.

The course uses a variety of country and context-specific examples to demonstrate the concepts. Policy makers, regulators, grid operators and investors in renewable electricity will benefit from a solid understanding of these considerations, thereby helping them drive forward the development of a fit-for-purpose clean power system in their own regional context.

Taught by

Jeff Hardy, Ajay Gambhir, Jo Haigh, Shane Tomlinson, Richard Green, Clementine Chambon and Kris Murray