Energy Transition
About the Project"What can a virtual lecture look like?" - This question was already on our minds in 2019, but it was the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic that lent additional weight to our reflections when university life was briefly turned upside down and put in front of the screen in 'maximum digital' semesters. Due to the large number of international students in our interdisciplinary master's program 'Transition Management' and the travel and contact restrictions that accompanied the pandemic, we faced even greater challenges in terms of teaching. While preserving any contact and travel restrictions, a completely virtual lecture offers international students in particular unhindered exchange as well as equal opportunities in exams, learning and practice units. The innovative combination of technical opportunities with state-of-the-art didactic methods allows existing classic teaching modules to be transformed into purely digital ones without compromising on teaching and learning quality. |
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The e-lecture series on "Energy Transition" by Prof. Dr. Michael DürenFor thousands of years, the human race has been developing cultural skills and technological capabilities that support its struggle for survival and lead to dominance over all other species. For about a century, the exponential growth of knowledge, technology, industry and population has reached a scale where man modifies the biosphere to an extent, that living conditions on the whole planet earth are starting to change significantly. Resources that have once been abundant are becoming scarce within decades. We have arrived in the Anthropocene [1] where man has a significant impact on the basic living conditions of the biosphere of the whole planet. A continuation of this growth rate will unavoidably reach its natural limits where resources vanish; the biosphere will change more rapidly than the ability of organisms and ecosystems to accommodate, and contaminations will endanger living. When such a condition is reached, it is likely that our human civilisation will collapse and human population will diminish rapidly. Historic examples demonstrated that drought, hunger, wars and epidemics were typical endpoints of drastic environmental changes and overpopulation. While historic examples mostly affected only individual towns, islands, countries or indigenous nations, the limits of growth this time affect the whole planet and there is no “new world” to which our civilisation can migrate. Recent research has proven that the era of a new biological mass extinction has already started [2] and it can be assumed that finally also our species will be affected. The challenge of this century is the deceleration of growth in general, especially the limitation of the world population to a stable number (e.g. 10 billion people), and the conversion of industrial processes to renewable and sustainable cycles, which will have to be able to supply food and a reasonable standard of living to this large number of people. This paper will focus on the subject of “energy” as one of the essentials of our society, but it will also point out the importance of the nexus of climate, energy, food, water and the carbon cycle. This series of lectures deals with the global renewable energy transition and climate change. It builds on the book "Understanding the Bigger Energy Picture" by Michael Düren, which is available free of charge in PDF format. |
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1. Introduction | Die globale Energiewende english subtitles available |
2. Limits of Growth english subtitles available |
3. Challenge of the World Energy Supply english subtitles available |
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4. Nuclear Energy: The Solution? english subtitles available |
5. The Era of Fossil Fuel english subtitles available |
6. Peak Oil and Fracking english subtitles available |
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7. Physics of Climate Change english subtitles available |
8. The Greenhouse Effect english subtitles available |
9. Climate Tipping Points english subtitles available |
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10. Global Warming english subtitles available |
11. Climate Change and Climate Change Deniers english subtitles available |
12. The Global Carbon Cycle english subtitles available |
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13. CCS Carbon Capture and Storage english subtitles available |
14. Stopping and Reversing Global Warming english subtitles available |
15. The Global Water Cycle english subtitles available |
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16. Energy in Times after the Energy Transition english subtitles available |
17. Energy Production: Locally or at best Sites? english subtitles available |
18. Conservation and Transformation of Energy english subtitles available |
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19. Hydropower english subtitles available |
20. Wind Power english subtitles available |
21. Physics of Wind Power english subtitles available |
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22. Solar Power english subtitles available |
23. Solar Power Tower english subtitles available |
24. Photovoltaics english subtitles available |
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25. Biomass english subtitles available |
26. Geothermal Energy english subtitles available |
27. Energy, Entropy and Exergy english subtitles available |
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28. Energy and Mobility english subtitles available |
29. The Future of Mobility english subtitles available |
30. Speed-Tram on the Highway english subtitles available |
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31. Eine Solarbrücke für Forschungsinfrastruktur english subtitles available |
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