Dear Colleagues,

The Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Agreement, together, aim to endow a “Sustainable World for All” through various perspectives and targets. Energy Sustainability is the key to promoting the Sustainable Development Goals, and humanity is already witnessing the energy transition, with renewables playing a dominant role. With the development of technologies and spreading digitalization, the world is energized with tons of possibilities, where the sustainability aspect can be strengthened. The process of imparting sustainability can be initiated with the energy transition, followed by a plethora of changes in the industrial sector, transportation sector and building sector to ultimately ensure the utilization of clean energy for the foundation of a green environment. Further considerations of techno-economic contributions to promoting affordability and ensuring energy security will prevail as a helping hand to achieve SDG 7. Besides, a significant contribution is required from diverse social bodies that can potentially be influenced by proper guidance and evidence. For such evidential contributions, the role of research communities is pivotal.

Therefore, this Special Issue seeks to contribute to the Sustainable Development Agenda through enhanced scientific and multi-disciplinary knowledge for identifying an efficient, economical and effective approach that also promotes environmental goals as well as social equity. We, therefore, invite papers on novel technical developments, reviews, case studies, and analytical as well as assessment papers from different disciplines, which could potentially hasten the progress in sustainability, especially in the energy sector, transportation sector and industrial sector in the context of sustainable energy. Further considerations of the SDG 7 assessment, strategical analysis and policy implications to support energy sustainability will be substantial.

Hence, the objective of this Special Issue is to attract researchers and practitioners in energy and SDGs, including national and global policies and initiatives to achieve the targets of SDG 7, to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. This Special Issue will accept original/review research about novel and innovative approaches that address the following topics (but is not limited to these): 

1. Renewable energy/distributed energy resource integration.
2. Energy transition and transformation—decentralization, digitization and decarbonization.
3. Energy system design, modeling and optimization to achieve SDG 7 targets.
4. Energy from waste, recycling and circularity.
5. Mini-, micro- and nano-grids—the roles in electrification, digitization and automation.
6. Micro-grids: ancillary services, transactive energy and demand responses.
7. Electric vehicles—efficiency enhancement, affordability analysis and the influence on various sectors.
8. The resiliency, cost savings and sustainability of the utilities.
9. Self-sustainable assessment in households and smart buildings.
10. Sustainable energy consumption and decentralized generation assessment in the industrial sector.
11. The assessment of renewable and sustainable energy potential from geographical and geopolitical aspects.
12. Techno-economic considerations of sustainable and renewable energy transitions.
13. Directing policies and regulations towards the Sustainable Development Goals.

Dr. GM Shafiullah
Dr. Umashankar Subramaniam
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
• Renewable energy and its enabling technologies
• Renewable energy integration with the energy mix
• Energy efficiency
• Future electricity networks
• Energy policy and planning
• Energy affordability
• Sustainability