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Special Issue Editors

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Urban energy systems are undergoing an accelerated transition in order to achieve goals of sustainability, security, and resilience.

The main drivers for the transition are the emergence of climate change, renewable-energy-source solutions, building renovation requirements, smart mobility, circular economic models, carbon emission limitations, and policy/regulation change.

This Special Issue thus aims to investigate and advance our understanding of the impacts of future energy systems on urban sustainability from building level to district/urban level.

In this context, the Special Issue focuses on novel theories, research, case studies, and literature reviews exploring the transition in aspects of technical development, economic evaluation, policy/regulation study, and social and environmental assessment of urban energy systems.

We therefore encourage all researchers from relevant domains to submit papers to this Special Issue on “Urban Energy System Adaption to Future Climate”. Contributions on, but not limited to, the following themes are welcome.

Future climate adaption solutions;
Renewable energy source integrated energy systems;
Buildings transformation;
Smart mobility;
Advanced control for urban energy systems;
Business models for energy trading;
Life-cycle analysis;
Urban energy data analytics;
Digitalization of energy systems;
Social analysis;
Policy and regulation.

Dr. Xingxing Zhang
Dr. Yongjun Sun
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Urban energy system
Future climate
Renewable energy
Building
Mobility
Data analytics
Business model
Digitalization

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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21 pages, 2601 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Examining the Dynamics and Determinants of Energy Consumption in China’s Megacity Based on Industrial and Residential Perspectives

by Changjian Wang, Fei Wang, Gengzhi Huang, Yang Wang, Xinlin Zhang, Yuyao Ye, Xiaojie Lin and Zhongwu Zhang

Sustainability 2021, 13(2), 764; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13020764 - 14 Jan 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1963

Abstract

Cities are regarded as the main areas for conducting strategies for energy sustainability and climate adaptation, specifically in the world’s top energy consumer—China. To uncover dynamic features and main drivers for the city-level energy consumption, a comprehensive and systematic city-level total energy consumption accounting approach was established and applied in China’s megacity, which has the highest industrial electricity consumption. Compared with previous studies, this study systematically analyzes drivers for energy consumption based on industrial and residential perspectives. Additionally, this study analyzes not only the mechanisms by which population size, economic growth, and energy intensity affect energy consumption but also the effects of population and industry structural factors. According to the extended Logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) method, the main conclusions drawn from this research are as follows: (1) The total energy consumption of Suzhou presented an overall increasing trend, with 2006–2012 as a rapid growth stage and 2013–2016 as a moderate growth stage. (2) The energy consumption structure was mainly dominated by coal, which was followed by outsourced electricity and natural gas. (3) Scale-related factors have dominated changes in energy consumption, and structural and technological factors have had profound effects on energy consumption in different development periods. (4) Population size and economic output were the main drivers for increments in industrial energy consumption, whereas energy intensity and economic structure performed the important curbing effects. The income effect of urban residents was the biggest driver behind the increase in residential energy consumption, whereas energy intensity was the main limiter. These findings provide a scientific basis for an in-depth understanding of the determinants of the evolution of urban energy consumption in China’s megacity, including similar cities or urban areas in the developing world. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Energy Systems Adaptation to Future Climate)

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Review

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37 pages, 3192 KiB

Open AccessReview

A Technical Review of Modeling Techniques for Urban Solar Mobility: Solar to Buildings, Vehicles, and Storage (S2BVS)

by Pei Huang, Xingxing Zhang, Benedetta Copertaro, Puneet Kumar Saini, Da Yan, Yi Wu and Xiangjie Chen

Sustainability 2020, 12(17), 7035; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12177035 - 28 Aug 2020

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 3184

Abstract

The deployment of solar photovoltaics (PV) and electric vehicles (EVs) is continuously increasing during urban energy transition. With the increasing deployment of energy storage, the development of the energy sharing concept and the associated advanced controls, the conventional solar mobility model (i.e., solar-to-vehicles (S2V), using solar energy in a different location) and context are becoming less compatible and limited for future scenarios. For instance, energy sharing within a building cluster enables buildings to share surplus PV power generation with other buildings of insufficient PV power generation, thereby improving the overall PV power utilization and reducing the grid power dependence. However, such energy sharing techniques are not considered in the conventional solar mobility models, which limits the potential for performance improvements. Therefore, this study conducts a systematic review of solar mobility-related studies as well as the newly developed energy concepts and techniques. Based on the review, this study extends the conventional solar mobility scope from S2V to solar-to-buildings, vehicles and storage (S2BVS). A detailed modeling of each sub-system in the S2BVS model and related advanced controls are presented, and the research gaps that need future investigation for promoting solar mobility are identified. The aim is to provide an up-to-date review of the existing studies related to solar mobility to decision makers, so as to help enhance solar power utilization, reduce buildings’ and EVs’ dependence and impacts on the power grid, as well as carbon emissions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Energy Systems Adaptation to Future Climate)

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