The Rise and Rise of Natural Gas

Following our discussion in class last week about energy trends over the past few decades, here is a trailer for a  recent documentary on the rise of natural gas entitled 'Gasland' and it doesn't make for easy viewing. The documentary was shown on Current TV last night and may be repeated over the coming weeks.

The Gaurdian newspaper has also got invovled in the debate and provides a 'Facts and Figures' approach to shale gas fracking. Make your own mind up??

Passive House Design and Construction Module at GMIT

Some useful videos used in class were the BASF video on energy efficiency and the excellent '300 years of fossil fuels in 300 seconds' by the Post Carbon Institute.

Students were also asked to imagine what the built environment would be like in a world without fossil fuels. The aim of this was to identify the tacit knowledge in the class and to encourage the students to think in future scenarios without limitations or restrictions. 

The last photograph provides an overview of the responses, which provides a good starting point for the module and the course as a whole. In fact, each of the points raised will be covered across the range of modules.

Passive House Design and Construction Module at GMIT

Week 1 aims to set the context for the next 10 weeks by focusing on energy and built environment while also giving an introduction to the Passive House concept. We explored the different units of energy, the importance of energy efficiency and international, European and Irish energy use trends.

Passive House Design and Construction Module at GMIT

This academic year, I am going to experiment with Prezi to see if it is a viable alternative to PowerPoint. My first lecture on Prezi is below outlining a brief introduction to the module.