Sustainability and Non-Market Enterprise

The primary goal of this course is to provide a toolset for characterizing and strategizing how non-market forces can shape current and future renewable energy markets. The course approaches the exploration and explanation of key concepts in renewable energy and sustainability non-market strategies through evidence-based examples. Main topics for the course include: a sociological approach to markets, renewable energy markets, non-market conditions, complex systems analysis, and renewable energy technology and business environments. Because renewable energy costs are higher than fossil fuel cost per unit of energy, the main arguments in support of renewable energy, thus far, are functionally non-market in character, i.e., environmental (e.g., climate change), political (e.g., energy independence), and/ or social (e.g., good stewardship).