Be part of a unique course about extreme energy efficiency and integrative design! We will meet once a week throughout the quarter. E^3 will focus on efficiency techniques' design, performance, integration, barrier-busting, profitable business-led implementation, and implications for energy supply, competitive success, environment, development, security, etc. Examples will span very diverse sectors, applications, issues, and disciplines, covering different energy themes throughout the quarter: buildings, transportation, industry, and implementation and implications, including renewable energy synergy and integration. The course will be composed of keynote lectures, exercises, and interactive puzzlers, synthesizing integrative design principles. Exercises will illuminate real-world design challenges RMI has faced, in which students will explore clean-sheet solutions that meet end-use demands and optimize whole-system resource efficiency, seeking expanding rather than diminishing returns to investments, i.e. making big savings cheaper than small ones. Students will work closely and interactively with the instructors Amory Lovins, cofounder and Chief Scientist of Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), Dr. Joel Swisher, former RMI managing director and Stanford instructor in CEE, more recently director of the Institute for Energy Studies at Western Washington University, and Dr. Holmes Hummel, founder of Clean Energy Works. All backgrounds and disciplines, undergraduate and graduate, are welcome to enroll. There is no application this year. Solid technical grounding and acquaintance with basic economics and business concepts will be helpful. Prerequisite - completion of one of the following courses or their equivalent is required: CEE 107A/CEE 207A/ Earthsys CEE 103, CEE 107S/ CEE 207S, CEE 176A, CEE 176B. Course details are available at the website: https://energy.stanford.edu/extreme-energy-efficiency
3-5 units · Letter or Credit/No Credit
Be part of a unique course about extreme energy efficiency and integrative design! We will meet once a week throughout the quarter. E^3 will focus on efficiency techniques' design, performance, integration, barrier-busting, profitable business-led implementation, and implications for energy supply, competitive success, environment, development, security, etc. Examples will span very diverse sectors, applications, issues, and disciplines, covering different energy themes throughout the quarter: buildings, transportation, industry, and implementation and implications, including renewable energy synergy and integration. The course will be composed of keynote lectures, exercises, and interactive puzzlers, synthesizing integrative design principles. Exercises will illuminate real-world design challenges RMI has faced, in which students will explore clean-sheet solutions that meet end-use demands and optimize whole-system resource efficiency, seeking expanding rather than diminishing returns to investments, i.e. making big savings cheaper than small ones. Students will work closely and interactively with the instructors Amory Lovins, cofounder and Chief Scientist of Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), Dr. Joel Swisher, former RMI managing director and Stanford instructor in CEE, more recently director of the Institute for Energy Studies at Western Washington University, and Dr. Holmes Hummel, founder of Clean Energy Works. All backgrounds and disciplines, undergraduate and graduate, are welcome to enroll. There is no application this year. Solid technical grounding and acquaintance with basic economics and business concepts will be helpful. Prerequisite - completion of one of the following courses or their equivalent is required: CEE 107A/207A/ Earthsys 103, CEE 107S/ CEE 207S, CEE 176A, CEE 176B. Course details are available at the website: https://energy.stanford.edu/extreme-energy-efficiency
Offered in Winter 2026, Spring 2026 at Stanford University.