THE GEOLOGY OF ENERGY: AN OPTIMISTIC INTRODUCTORY GEOLOGY CLASS THAT EXPOSES THE MYTH OF AN ENERGY CRISIS

The Geology of Energy is an introductory college course that teaches the basic geologic principles that control the production and amount of energy resources that humans have and consume. This course evaluates energy more broadly to overcome the crisis of depletion and volatility of finite resources in the midst of growing consumption.

This class begins with the basic physics of energy then provides details of each of the major sources of energy in the following order to best support increasing complexity of topics. 1- Solar: geometry of earth and sun system, radiation process and amounts of energy are presented. 2- Wind: building on solar processes, atmospheric dynamics and turbine and generator systems are added. 3- Hydroelectric: the hydrologic cycle, stream dynamics, and the array of hydrologic based generators are covered. 4- Nuclear: the generation of isotopes and amounts of energy they contain is covered as is the drawbacks from its use. 5- Geothermal: stemming from Nuclear, the earth’s internal heat and resultant tectonic plate processes are covered at the typical geology 101 class level. 6- Hydrocarbons: several previous topics (solar, geothermal heat, sedimentation) are aggregated and combined with a brief discussion of biological systems. This section emphasizes the 4-5 step process of hydrocarbon production and storage as the controller for current location and volume of hydrocarbon supply. Economic principles of supply and demand are also covered to illustrate the dynamic between resources and reserves. Energy source consumption rates and longevity of finite supplies are discussed in context of supplying future demand.

Student teams are assigned semester long projects in which they apply skills such as the calculation of finite and renewable resources present in an assigned U.S. State. Interactive games such as “Grid Operator” have been developed to model how energy types can complement each other help build perspective. Teams then propose changes to that state’s energy consumption pattern to take advantage of those resources. No single energy source or solution is encouraged, only that those solutions are reasoned. The alternative and larger perspective on energy resource volume and management that this course builds provides room for student ownership and a fundamentally optimistic outlook.