The final will be more like a second midterm as it will predominately contain questions related to the material presented since the last midterm.

However, there will be a few overarching questions related to the overall themes and messages of this course - some examples of these are in the list below.

1. Review exponential growth concepts

2. Critically discuss the comparative relative advantages and disadvantages of Wind vs Solar Energy as a production line renewable energy source.

3. List or describe some of the factors that you believe render the US incapable of long term infrastructure planning.

4. Discuss and analyze specific obstacles (physical, environmental, economic, social, political) to the widespread integration of renewable energy into the American economy? How would you propose to eliminate or reduce these obstacles?

5. Using your critical reasoning skills and knowledge acquired from lectures and reading, defend or rebuke the following statement: Conservation is our best and cheapest energy resource.

6. Explain what the "wedge" approach is to achieving Carbon stabilization and provide examples of what practices or requirements or needed to secure one wedge.

7. On a global scale, explain why tidal generated electricity does not make much sense to invest in.

8. Briefly explain why the emerging energy footprint of China is so threatening.

9. Compare and contrast the different suggested/available devices for wave energy. If you were to advise the adoption of a particular wave power technology, which one would it be and why?

10. Describe the basic technology that can be used for the storage or sequestration of carbon. What are some of the potential problems associated with this/these methods?

11. Explain the concept/goals of CO₂ Stabilization.

12. Explain why Russia is likely to be the main player in the international energy game by the year 2020.

13. Explain how OTEC works in basic terms and why it holds such promise as a future source of energy generation

14. Give an explanation of why it seems to be that Americans have the attitude that its their manifest destiny to organize and maintain a highly consumptive society.

15. What are the primary targets/industry for in situ carbon sequestration.

16. Explain why energy storage is a critical component of renewable energy technologies.

17. Discuss why flow batteries are a good example of scalable energy storage.

18. Describe how a flywheel acts as an energy storage system. How do you optimize the amount of energy you can store per unit mass?

19. Explain why all electric vehicles are basically performance limited by current battery technology.

20. Critically discuss the possibilities for having a hydrogen economy. Identify what you think are the main obstacles and propose solutions to overcome them.

21. Critically discuss the pros and cons of having a near term (5-15 years) LNG economy? What would you propose that should be done as a subsitute given the required scale of 100,000 more MegaWatts needed by the year 2020?

22. Explain the factors that go into determining an exponential depletion timescale. How was Hubbert able to correctly use this procedure?

23. Which form of alternative energy that we have discussed throughout the term do you believe has the most benign ecological footprint (on the scale of 1000 MW net electricity generated) and why is this the case?

24. Explain why "Distributed Generation" as an important component of the necessary future "energy revolution".
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Week 10