Rural electric cooperatives - first created by local communities in the United States in the early twentieth century and later expanded by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress to electrify rural America - operate in decision-making environments fundamentally distinct from other parts of the energy system. Today, rural electric cooperatives provide electric power to forty-two million people in over twenty million residences, businesses, farms, and schools across forty-eight states. Rural electric cooperatives were formed to serve dispersed energy needs in rural areas and today they cover over 50% of the U.S. landmass. To serve this wide area, rural electric cooperatives own approximately 40% (over two million miles) of the nation's electric distribution lines, which connect electricity users to the electric grid.
While rural electric cooperatives are rapidly transitioning their energy supply mixes, they also hold significant debt associated with aging fossil power plants. Strategically transitioning rural energy systems toward cleaner energy sources would reduce the nation's contribution to global climate change and help ensure that rural America is not left with billions of dollars of stranded assets. Further, a cost-effective national transition to clean energy is likely to require both utilizing significant land area for deploying solar and wind resources and building substantial amounts of new power lines across large regions. Thus, the broad geographic coverage of rural electric cooperatives can enable them to be key players in the deployment of clean energy and its supporting infrastructure, which will bolster the benefits of the clean energy transition for rural Americans. (Klass and Chan, 2021)
In this course, we will explore electric cooperative utility governance, the intersections of the clean energy transition with rural communities, and policy and programs shaping utility innovation and modernization challenges in rural areas. This course will explore real-world challenges and provide an immersive experience, including a series of site visits and meetings with cooperative utilities and generation and transmission providers.
This course is designed for graduate students but advanced undergraduates may enroll with instructor permission. This course will complement several other offerings in the science, technology, and environmental policy (STEP) area at the Humphrey School.
This course is offered in three different credit levels:
1 credit (register for PA 5790, section 1): class lectures and discussions on rural energy transitions history and contemporary issues; meeting every other week
2 credits (register for PA 5790, section 1): same as above plus site visits to electric cooperatives and supporting organizations on alternating weeks with lectures/discussions
3 credits (register for PA 5790, section 2): same as above plus a week-long experiential education trip to rural energy facilities in Minnesota, South Dakota, and North Dakota in May 2022 (requires a $350 course fee)