Course: REEC 120 Sustainability and Renewable Energy

Unit 1 Overview

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In “Every BIG helps,” we will explore the ways to start reducing demand and supply:

Demand for power could be reduced in three ways:
- by reducing our population
- by changing our lifestyle
- by keeping our lifestyle, but reducing its energy intensity through “efficiency” and “technology”

Supply could be increased in three ways:
- We could get off fossil fuels by investing in “clean coal” technology.
Oops! Coal is a fossil fuel. Well, never mind – let’s take a look at this idea.

- We could invest in nuclear fission.
Is current nuclear technology “sustainable”? Is it at least a stop-gap that might last for 100 years?

- We could buy, beg, or steal renewable energy from other countries.
But most countries will be in the same boat as Britain and will have no renewable energy to spare; and sourcing renewable energy from another country doesn’t magically shrink the renewable power facilities required. If we import renewable energy from other countries in order to avoid building renewable facilities the size of Wales in our country, someone will have to build facilities roughly the size of Wales in those other countries.