After taking a set of foundational courses, Climate and Sustainable Growth majors will apply what they learned to an experiential course offered during the September term. The course widens students’ perspectives by taking them around the world to places pivotal to understanding the climate and sustainable growth challenge. For example, they could see what it is like to live in an emerging economy with little reliable electricity, witness in real time the trade-offs of living in an energy producing community, understand the decisions made by capital allocators making energy investments, and more.
This program is supported by the Polsky Energy Transition Leadership Academy.
Contact: Trista Trone, ttrone@uchicago.edu.
Photo Gallery
Students tour the Big Sampson wind farm.
Students tour the Big Sampson wind farm.
The cohort gathers in front of Big Sampson wind farm.
UChicago students and faculty learn about utility-scale wind from experts at ENGIE.
Agenda
Alongside daily classes taught by UChicago faculty, students will experience more than a dozen field visits allowing them to gain firsthand knowledge on a range of climate and energy topics.
Field visit locations and themes from our inaugural September Term include:
Midland, Texas
- Climate technology and the energy transition: Big Sampson Wind Farm
- Energy history and industry context: Petroleum Museum
- Fracking and upstream production: Occidental Petroleum Training Center
- Midstream: gathering, processing, and moving the molecules: Kinetik
- State and local government: Texas Railroad Commission
- The world of US energy and Permian Basin production: Melzer Consulting
Albany and New York, New York
- Climate finance: J.P. Morgan
- Grid operations and energy policy: New York Independent System Operator
- Grid modernization and public power: NY Power Authority Advanced Grid Innovation Laboratory for Energy (AGILe) Lab
- Grid operations and system control: NY Power Authority Integrated Smart Operations Center (iSOC)
- Investment strategy and portfolio management: KeyBanc Capital Markets
- Policy, implementation, and city government: Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice
- Private equity and energy assets: Blackstone
New Delhi, India
- Air pollution measurement and enforcement: Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM)
- Climate impacts: Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
- The economics of India’s energy mix: Chintan Research Foundation
- Inside an Indian distribution utility, from power procurement to rural electrification: Tata Power
- Market-based policy: Central Pollution Control Board