About This Course
Energy is the backbone of modern life, and the systems that generate, regulate, and deliver it are undergoing the most dramatic transformation in a century. This course gives you the knowledge, tools, and strategic insight to understand that transformation—and to participate in it. Whether you’re driven by climate action, fascinated by electricity markets, or eager to understand how policy shapes the grid, this course delivers a comprehensive, engaging, and highly practical learning experience.
You’ll explore how electricity is generated, how the grid maintains stability, and why transmission constraints matter. You’ll learn how utilities make decisions, how regulators set rates, and how economic incentives shape both corporate behavior and consumer choices. You’ll dive into the mechanics of cost‑of‑service regulation, decoupling, inverted block rates, and the regulatory compact that has defined U.S. energy for over a century.
But this course doesn’t stop at the technical. You’ll examine the political and economic forces shaping today’s energy debates—from gas tax repeal proposals to ethanol’s impact on food markets, from advanced transmission technologies to the environmental consequences of policy choices. You’ll see how regulators, courts, utilities, and communities use the tools available to them to pursue reliability, affordability, and environmental protection.
Most importantly, you’ll leave with a deep understanding of how energy systems actually work—not just in theory, but in practice. You’ll be able to analyze policy proposals, evaluate regulatory decisions, and understand the tradeoffs behind every kilowatt-hour delivered to homes and businesses.
If you’re ready to understand the energy landscape with clarity, confidence, and depth, this course is your gateway. Join a learning experience that blends engineering, economics, policy, and environmental strategy into one powerful, future‑focused curriculum. Step into the world of energy with the knowledge to make a difference.
Course Staff
Chief Educational Troublemaker
Michael Williams
Michael Williams is the Chief Educational Troublemaker at World Mentoring Academy — a title he earned the hard way: by spending more than a decade poking, prodding, and occasionally drop‑kicking the traditional education system into the future. In 2010, long before “MOOC” became a Silicon Valley buzzword, Michael was building a free global college from a backpack, a stubborn belief in open learning, and whatever Starbucks Wi‑Fi he could borrow. The Orange County Register profiled him as a “homeless by choice educator to the world,” documenting his 12‑hour days assembling university‑level courses from MIT, Yale, NPTEL, and Stanford — all without charging a cent.
While the big platforms eventually traded “open” for “subscription,” Michael never budged. World Mentoring Academy remains one of the last true free MOOCs on Earth, offering more than 1,000 courses without paywalls, upsells, or fine print.
Michael’s LinkedIn essays — including “Harvard & MIT, Follow a Homeless Educator,” “The Future Won’t Wait for Academia,” and “Future of Education May Have Ancient Roots?” — have earned him a reputation as a futurist with calluses, someone who can explain why AI is breaking the job market, why teens are the workforce pipeline no one is using, and why the next education revolution will look more like ancient Athens than a modern lecture hall.
Across every WMA course, Michael appears as your unofficial guide, mentor, instigator, and occasionally your friendly academic arsonist — the guy who hands you the map, the compass, and the confidence to build a future that doesn’t depend on debt, gatekeeping, or waiting for institutions to catch up.
He helps learners find their place in a world that’s changing faster than universities can update their syllabi — and he does it with humor, humanity, and a refusal to accept that opportunity should be rationed.
If education needs a troublemaker, Michael is happy to volunteer.
