Systems Approach to Renewable Power and Hydrogen Generation

Dear Colleagues,

Systems integration management, adaptation and resilience are becoming critical aspects of the technological sustainability of renewable energy technologies. Significant efforts have been made to evaluate sustainable energy sources, materials and systems to achieve rapid progress in the Sustainable Development Goals before the end of 2030. More work is required, looking at the lessons learned so far.  

Undisputedly, renewable energy exploitation remains one approach to achieve cleaner power production because renewable energy sources are inexhaustible, and there are no emissions during operation. The second approach could be to use materials and chemical platforms with low carbon content. The other aspects include dynamic behaviours and preferences towards transitions to renewable energy in the future whilst market forces continue to drive innovation, capital allocation and system integration. Operationally, energy storage remains a problem, although using hydrogen as an energy vector remains a favourable choice. Thus, hydrogen remains a key component of sustainable energy mix in the foreseeable future.

Thinking about renewable energy systems as part of technical systems that exist in social systems offers a new perspective worth exploring by researchers, innovators and policymakers. With systems thinking lenses, creating novel engineering materials for harvesting, transporting energy or hydrogen, storing, converting, conserving and transforming renewable energy or hydrogen energy can be considered as approaches to advancing systems that facilitate sustainable energy utilization. Of course, research and innovations for achieving net zero emissions and replacing fossil fuels will employ energy materials, efficient renewable power systems design methodologies, systems modelling and simulation tools and techniques, manufacturing systems and processes for renewable energy technologies, and green and blue hydrogen technologies. Consequently, there is a need to collate state-of-the-art outputs on renewable power and hydrogen generation from a systems thinking perspective.

This Special Issue aims to nudge a systems thinking approach to provide novel research outputs and disseminate the most recent advances related to theory, design, control, modelling, simulations, operations, management, materials, application, business models and case studies on renewable power and hydrogen generation systems and management.

Topics of interest for publication include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Systems integration of renewable sources (solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, tidal, biomass, etc.) to generate power or hydrogen for multi-objective applications.
• Hybrid/integrated energy systems for power and hydrogen generation.
• Renewable power and hydrogen applications as a system of systems, including in buildings, outdoor environmental systems, remote systems, autonomous systems, manufacturing systems, automotive systems, aerospace systems, agricultural systems, service delivery systems and in any other systems.
• Materials that enable higher efficiency in energy harvesting, storage and hydrogen generation systems.
• Grid and off-grid integration of renewable energy technologies to improve the resilience and adaptations of power and hydrogen generation systems.
• Distributed renewable energy systems business models.
• Manufacturing systems for renewable energy technologies.
• Risk management of renewable energy systems and businesses.
• Project management of renewable energy systems and farms.
• Operations management strategies for renewable energy systems.
• Project finance strategy for large-scale renewable energy farms.

Dr. Chukwuma Ogbonnaya
Guest Editor

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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. Energies 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 2600 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.

• renewable energy technologies
• hydrogen economy
• engineering management
• manufacturing systems engineering
• systems theories
• systems thinking