Energy Sustainability Driven by Digital Technologies: Mechanisms and Applications
A Special Issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073) belonging to the section "F5: Artificial Intelligence and Smart Energy".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 November 2026 | Viewed by 157
Editors
Interests: energy policy; energy economics; energy digital twin
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In recent decades, we have witnessed dramatic innovations in digital technology like 5G, AI, big data and cloud computing, which are widely used in different sectors of society, including the energy sector, in energy generation and storage, carbon capture, and green hydrogen energy. Digital technology has huge transformative potential to drive development towards a green world. Increasing attention, from academia and practitioners, is being paid to this phenomenon at both the micro-level of individuals and organizations and the macro-level of society in the global context, in the energy sector from a variety of theoretical and practical perspectives. Hence, this Special Issue focuses on “digital technology and energy sustainability”. We seek to explore how digital technology is helping to address sustainability challenges and to promote sustainable development
“Energy sustainability” involves meeting present energy needs without compromising future generations and driving sound energy-economic growth. The digital-based energy sustainability emphasizes the convergence of the energy sustainability imperative that typically involves deliberations on the trade-offs between environmental, social, and economic dimensions, and the digital imperative that focuses on the transformative potential of digital energies. Digital technology can create both opportunities and challenges for energy sustainability. For example, the use of massive computational capabilities of AI based on big data comes at the expense of proportionally massive energy requirements. It is of both theoretical interest and practical significance to analyze the organizational and institutional activities of leveraging digital technology to promote energy sustainability, which encompasses broad issues in policy and management.
We call for research papers offering insights into these key aspects of digital technology and energy sustainability, connecting to specific social, economic, institutional, and technological contexts. At a more practical level, we invite submissions that are theoretically and empirically rigorous on topics that may include, but are not limited to:
-digital technology and energy life cycle;
-impacts of digital technology on energy sustainability;
-digital energy, including services, consumption, efficiency, economics, sustainability indicators;
-opportunities and barriers of digitalization and digital transformation in the energy sector;
-digital technology and sustainable energy;
-energy digital twin;
-social, environmental and technological imperatives in digital-driven energy sustainability;
-energy government roles, energy innovation system, energy governance and policy;
-new energy vehicle;
-any other topics related to digital technology and energy sustainability.
Prof. Dr. Xiaosong Ren
Dr. Ping Gao
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 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-anonymized 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.
Keywords
- energy sustainability
- energy transition
- energy efficiency
- decarbonization
- energy system
- energy digitalization
- digital technologies
- smart energy
- AI for energy systems
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
