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RSM2122H – Clean Energy: Policy Context and Business Opportunities

General Information

Instructor(s)

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Applicable Major(s):
(c) = Core, (r) = Recommended

  • Social Impact & Sustainability (c)

Instructor Bio

Kenneth S. Corts is the Marcel Desautels Chair in Entrepreneurship, Professor of Business Economics, and Vice-Dean, Research, Strategy, and Resources at the Rotman School. Before joining Rotman in 2003, he was an Associate Professor in the Competition and Strategy area at Harvard Business School. He received his PhD in Economics from Princeton University in 1994.

Target Audience

This course will be of interest to students interested in working in, consulting for, investing in, or founding low-carbon energy and related cleantech businesses. It will also be of interest to students with a general interest in following ongoing developments in technology, policy, and news around the global response to climate change.

Course Mission

At the end of this course, students will have a broad familiarity with the functioning of a variety of energy markets and be able to assess the business prospects of a firm in an energy-related field with a deepened understanding of how the policy and regulatory environments create business opportunities and shape the competitive landscape.

Course Scope

We will discuss a variety of energy markets and businesses. I will bring an economics and strategy perspective to the analysis, and nearly every day an executive from a firm in these markets will join us to bring practical and topical experience to bear on the subject. The course includes overviews of the economics of policy interventions, the energy policy landscape, and the institutional environment of modern quasi-deregulated energy markets. We then consider different business models for commercialization of specific energy technologies, examining specifically the businesses of our guest speakers, who will span sectors including electricity, transportation, waste, and buildings as well as technologies including wind, solar, biogas, hydrogen, energy storage, electric vehicles, and others.

The best way to get a feel for this course is to review last year’s detailed course daily schedule (not all links will work but you will get a feel for the course). The course will be largely similar, although the format and timing of deliverables will change somewhat since the 2022 offering will be in an intensive format while the last offering was during the regular semester.

Evaluation and Grade Distribution

ComponentDue DateWeight
Class ParticipationOngoing20%
Homework ExerciseSession 310%
In-Class Short QuizSession 515%
In-Class Short EssaySession 815%
Group ProjectFinal Class40%

Required Resources

There is no required text. There are two suggested books; in addition, many case studies, annual reports, policy documents, and readings from the press will be distributed electronically.

Notes

Last Updated: 2021-07-12 @ 3:15 pm