Day 088 — Listening: University Tutorial — Renewable Energy Policy Presentation

Dr. Bennett（指導教員） Tom（学生A） Priya（学生B）

Dr. Bennett: Morning, both. So, let's talk through your presentation plan for the Environmental Policy module. You're looking at renewable energy policy — is that right?

Tom: Yes, that's right. We've decided to focus specifically on comparing solar subsidy schemes in Germany and Japan, rather than trying to cover renewable energy in general, which felt far too broad.

Dr. Bennett: Good, narrowing the scope was the right call. So what's your central argument going to be?

Priya: We want to argue that feed-in tariffs — where the government guarantees a fixed price for electricity generated — have been more effective at driving household solar adoption than one-off installation subsidies, using Germany and Japan as our two case studies.

Dr. Bennett: That's a strong angle. Have you thought about how you'll measure "effectiveness," though? That word can mean different things.

Tom: We were planning to use the growth in installed solar capacity per household as our main metric.

Dr. Bennett: That works, but I'd encourage you to also factor in cost to the taxpayer. A policy might drive adoption but at an unsustainable public cost. Comparing capacity growth against government expenditure would make your analysis far more convincing.

Priya: That's a good point — we hadn't really considered the cost side in detail. We could pull that data from the national energy agency reports.

Dr. Bennett: Exactly. Now, one challenge you'll need to address is grid capacity. As more households generate their own electricity, the existing grid infrastructure sometimes struggles to absorb that extra supply, particularly during peak sunlight hours.

Tom: Right, we read about that — it's sometimes called the "duck curve" problem, where demand and supply mismatch throughout the day.

Dr. Bennett: Precisely. I'd suggest including a short section on grid intermittency as a limitation of solar-heavy policy, just so your presentation doesn't come across as one-sided.

Priya: Understood. In terms of structure, we're planning to open with background on both countries' energy mix, then move into the policy comparison, then finish with our cost-effectiveness findings and a short discussion of limitations.

Dr. Bennett: That sounds like a sensible structure. How are you splitting the workload between the two of you?

Tom: I'll take the German case study and the policy history, and Priya's handling Japan along with the cost data analysis. We're combining for the intermittency section together.

Dr. Bennett: And your presentation is when — next Friday?

Priya: Yes, the 18th. We've got about twelve minutes, plus questions.

Dr. Bennett: Good, that should be enough if you keep the case study sections concise. One last thing — make sure you clearly define "feed-in tariff" right at the start. Don't assume the audience already knows the term.

Tom: Noted, we'll add a definition slide early on.

Dr. Bennett: Great. Send me a draft outline by Wednesday if you can, so I can give you feedback before Friday.

Priya: Will do. Thanks so much for your help today.