Individual presentations for EPS 109
Your assignment is to research and prepare a 12-15 minute oral presentation on a specific
topic related to the content of this course. You will deliver your presentation to your lab
group during the final lab meeting of the semester (the week of April 25-29th).
We will be emailing you with a doodle poll containing the topics listed below. The poll
will open at 10 pm on Thursday, March 31st. You must choose a topic by April 8th.
Topics are given on a first-come, first-serve basis; if someone has already chosen the
topic you are interested in, you may either choose a different topic or a closely related
topic. You may choose from the topics listed below, or, if you would like to present on a
topic not listed, it must be cleared with your TF.
Presentations will be graded on the quality of content, organization, and clarity of
delivery. You should prepare a 12-15 slide Powerpoint presentation to accompany your
oral discussion. We will be posting the Powerpoint presentations on the course website
for all class participants to view, so you must include sufficient detail on your slides they
communicate the main points of your talk (i.e., include bullet-point lists of important
topics, not just pictures).
The content of this presentation should be thorough and at a detailed technical level. You
must cite the sources of your information, and list your references at the end of your
presentation. Valid sources include books, peer-reviewed journal articles, and
information from legitimate websites (.edu, .gov, and limited other websites as
appropriate for a specific topic). Particular care should be taken to avoid biased or
incorrect content from news and internet sources.
Potential student presentation topics
1. Photovoltaics: costs compared to fossil fuels, and the role of tax subsidies
2. Photovoltaics: mineral resource limitations for emerging designs (Cd-Te)
3. Photovoltaics: space-based solar?
4. Energy Security: vulnerabilities to terrorist attack
5. Heat pumps: cost & how they work
6. Solar water heaters: cost & how they work
7. Wood-burning stoves: energy efficiency and pollution
8. Compact fluorescent bulbs: how do they work, and why are they more efficient?
9. Black carbon: Causes, its role in climate change, and human health effects
10. Energy infrastructure in the USA
11. Elasticity of oil demand?
12. Biofuels: Sugarcane vs. corn
13. Biofuels: Advantages and limitations for algal fuel production
14. Biofuels: Cellulosic ethanol biofuels
15. Biofuels and the world food supply
16. Brazil and their experiences with E85
17. Fischer-Tropsch synfuel production
18. Carbon sequestration methods
19. Carbon sequestration: Potential reservoirs and capacities?
20. Deep-sea carbon sequestration?
21. Ni-MH batteries: technology, economics, environmental impacts
22. Flow batteries
23. Global lithium resources for battery production
24. Disposal of hazardous materials in batteries
25. Pumped hydro energy storage
26. Compressed gas energy storage
27. Copper resources: Cost fluctuations and their impacts on the development of new
transmission capacity
28. Precious metals: supply/demand
29. Mineral resources and political stability in developing countries (choose one to
focus on)
30. Uranium: Reserve and resource size, and implications for the cost of future power
generation
31. Advantages and disadvantages of breeder reactors for nuclear power generation
and fuel supply
32. Thorium reactors
33. Mini-nuclear power generation and nuclear batteries
34. Nuclear waste storage issues: Yucca Mountain vs. WIPP
35. Nuclear fuel reprocessing: advantages and disadvantages
36. Comparison of nuclear power-related accidents
37. Natural uranium and radiation hazards
38. Geothermal energy: Iceland vs. USA
39. Enhanced geothermal systems
40. Advantages and disadvantages of different ground-source heat pump designs
41. How to deal with the intermittency of wind and solar power generation
42. Unconventional wind turbine designs: potential for efficiency improvements?
43. Challenges for developing wind projects in the US (Cape wind, etc.)
44. Transmission requirements for wind power expansion
45. Run-of-the-river hydroelectric dams
46. Environmental impacts of hydroelectric dams
47. Factors impacting the lifespan of hydroelectric dams, and requirements for
decommissioning
48. Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: quantities of oil and
environmental impact
49. Gulf of Mexico (or other oil province) petroleum system: source rock, seal,
reservoir, etc.
50. Peak oil: Why have past forecasts been inaccurate? Are there better methods for
predicting peak resource production?
51. Methane clathrates—drilling hazard or potential resource?
52. Nonconventional sources of conventional energy (pick one: tar sands and heavy
oil, shale gas and oil, coal-bed methane)
53. How does OPEC work?
54. Fuel efficiency and regulations
55. The future of hydrogen cars and the hydrogen economy?
56. Infrastructure requirements for electric cars
57. Energy use and space travel
58. Tidal energy
59. Diamond mining
60. Banded iron formations
61. Mining-related Superfund sites (choose one)
62. Acid mine drainage (AMD) and abandoned mine reclamation (AMR)
63. The natural resources of Massachusetts (or other state of your choosing)
64. The production of plastics from hydrocarbons
65. Bio-plastics
66. Fertilizers and pollution
67. The world fresh water supply: present and future
68. Dams and water rights
69. Desalinization
70. Aquifer depletion
71. The Dust Bowl: cause and effect
72. Obama-Biden energy policy
73. Status of international climate negotiations
74. Tradable-permits for emission products
75. Renewable energy certificates and other consumer-driven incentives for
renewable energy
76. Pollution and the ozone layer
77. Global warming: positive and negative feedback cycles
78. Global temperature variations: past vs. present
79. Environmental impacts of ocean acidification
80. Geoengineering: methods and their prospects of mitigating climate change