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Ultra-Low Energy Consumption and Zero-Energy Buildings in Response to Climate...
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Ultra-Low Energy Consumption and Zero-Energy Buildings in Response to Climate Change

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "G: Energy and Buildings".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 July 2025 | Viewed by 3467

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Fei Guo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Architecture & Fine Art, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China
Interests: building energy efficiency; urban climate; urban disaster prevention
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Stephen Siu Yu Lau

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Architecture, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Interests: building energy efficiency; urban heat island; microclimate; thermal comfort
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Baojie He

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400045, China
Interests: high temperature resilient urban planning and design; high temperature mitigation adaptation; urban design and carbon cycle
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Andreas Matzarakis

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Environmental Meteorology, University of Freiburg, D-79085 Freiburg, Germany
2. Democritus University of Thrace, 69100 Komotini, Greece
Interests: human biometeorology; urban microclimate; climate change and health, micro-scale modeling; RayMan; climate orientated planning and design
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change represents a significant challenge currently faced by the global community. Reducing the consumption of conventional energy sources and enhancing the utilization of renewable energy are crucial pathways to decrease carbon emissions, achieve carbon neutrality, and address climate change. The building's energy consumption accounts for one-third of the total societal energy consumption. Therefore, the development of ultra-low energy or zero-energy buildings is an important measure to reduce carbon emissions and energy consumption, and it is a frontier and focal point in contemporary academia.

Throughout the entire lifecycle of a building, achieving ultra-low or zero-energy architecture necessitates in-depth research at each stage, including "design, produce, construction, use, demolition, and reuse". This involves multiple disciplines such as architecture, building services and energy management, building materials and construction, and urban and rural planning. There is an urgent need to strengthen interdisciplinary collaborative research efforts.

This Special Issue aims to present the latest trends in ultra-low and zero-energy buildings in the context of climate change, including but not limited to the following topics for soliciting contributions:

  • High-performance building envelope technologies;
  • Renewable energy integration in buildings;
  • Energy-efficiency in building systems;
  • Building energy-efficient design strategies adapted to future climates;
  • The correlation mechanism between building form and energy consumption;
  • Carbon emissions assessment throughout the building's lifecycle;
  • The coupling of urban microclimate and building energy models;
  • Indoor thermal environment in the context of climate change.

Prof. Dr. Fei Guo
Prof. Dr. Stephen Siu Yu Lau
Dr. Baojie He
Prof. Dr. Andreas Matzarakis
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. 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

  • ultra-low energy buildings
  • zero-energy buildings
  • climate change
  • zero-carbon
  • whole lifecycle

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 4228 KiB  
Article
Evaluation of Energy Demands and Performance of Multi-Storey Cross-Laminated Timber Buildings
by Timothy O. Adekunle
Energies 2025, 18(4), 933; https://doi.org/10.3390/en18040933 - 15 Feb 2025
Viewed by 498
Abstract
The overarching goal of this research is to evaluate the energy demands and performance of multi-storey cross-laminated timber (CLT) buildings. The research examines the various energy demands influencing the performance of multi-storey CLT buildings. The study addresses the following research question: Can different [...] Read more.
The overarching goal of this research is to evaluate the energy demands and performance of multi-storey cross-laminated timber (CLT) buildings. The research examines the various energy demands influencing the performance of multi-storey CLT buildings. The study addresses the following research question: Can different energy demands influence the performance of CLT buildings? The investigation explores building modeling and simulation under two different weather scenarios to assess these issues. The study considers London Islington and St Albans (Test Reference Year—TRY), due to the proximity of the actual case studies to the reference locations of the weather files. The investigation captures energy demands and performance in the warm season (i.e., May–August). The findings show that the Stadt building (STB) temperatures under the two weather scenarios are warmer by 1.2 °C and 1.6 °C than those of Brid building (BDH) under the same weather conditions. Outdoor dry-bulb temperatures have a lesser impact on radiant temperatures than indoor air temperatures and operative temperatures in the buildings. Solar gains for external windows are influenced by design variables (e.g., building shapes, heights, floor areas, orientations, opening sizes, etc.). The indoor environmental conditions of the buildings under different weather conditions are comfortable, except for BDH St Albans TRY. Occupancy is a major driver influencing domestic hot water (DHW) usage profiles, regardless of the energy sources in the buildings. DHW is a significant parameter determining the overall energy usage in buildings. Other energy usage profiles, such as room electricity, computers and equipment, general lighting, and lighting, can also impact energy usage in buildings. The research outcomes can enhance our understanding of energy usage profiles and possible improvements to enhance the overall performance of CLT buildings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ultra-Low Energy Consumption and Zero-Energy Buildings in Response to Climate Change)
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15 pages, 2868 KiB  
Article
Study on the Spatial and Temporal Evolution of Building Carbon Emissions and Influencing Factors in the Urban Agglomeration of the Yangtze River Economic Belt
by Ruiqing Yuan, Jiayi Lu, Kai Zhang, Hongying Niu, Ying Long and Xiangyang Xu
Energies 2024, 17(22), 5752; https://doi.org/10.3390/en17225752 - 18 Nov 2024
Viewed by 701
Abstract
With the rapid urbanization process, the construction industry has become a significant source of urban carbon emissions in China. The carbon emissions from buildings in the urban clusters of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, a crucial region for China’s economic development, have attracted [...] Read more.
With the rapid urbanization process, the construction industry has become a significant source of urban carbon emissions in China. The carbon emissions from buildings in the urban clusters of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, a crucial region for China’s economic development, have attracted considerable attention. This study focuses on urban buildings and aims to investigate the primary influencing factors of building carbon emissions in the urban clusters of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. The study highlights the innovative use of nighttime light remote sensing data to analyze urban carbon emissions and provides an in-depth exploration of the spatiotemporal characteristics of building carbon emissions in the urban clusters of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Utilizing nighttime light remote sensing data similar to DMSP-OLS and provincial-level building carbon emissions, combined with spatial autocorrelation and spatiotemporal geographically weighted regression models, the study estimates and analyzes the building carbon emissions from 2012 to 2021 in 71 prefecture-level and above administrative regions within the three major urban clusters of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. The results indicate a continuous increase in total building carbon emissions in the three major urban clusters of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, with an accelerating growth rate. Spatially, urban building carbon emissions exhibit enhanced convergence but decreasing correlation over time, demonstrating evolving spatiotemporal patterns. Furthermore, the study identifies economic development level, population size, built-up area, and industrial structure as the main factors influencing building carbon emissions, with industrial structure showing significant impact. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ultra-Low Energy Consumption and Zero-Energy Buildings in Response to Climate Change)
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Review

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25 pages, 2235 KiB  
Review
Grey-Box Method for Urban Building Energy Modelling: Advancements and Potentials
by Yucheng Guo, Jie Shi, Tong Guo, Fei Guo, Feng Lu and Lingqi Su
Energies 2024, 17(21), 5463; https://doi.org/10.3390/en17215463 - 31 Oct 2024
Viewed by 1161
Abstract
Urban building energy modelling (UBEM) has consistently been a pivotal tool to evaluate and control a building stock’s energy consumption. There are two main approaches to build up UBEM: top-down and bottom-up. The latter is the most commonly used in engineering. The bottom-up [...] Read more.
Urban building energy modelling (UBEM) has consistently been a pivotal tool to evaluate and control a building stock’s energy consumption. There are two main approaches to build up UBEM: top-down and bottom-up. The latter is the most commonly used in engineering. The bottom-up approach includes three methods: the physical-based method, the data-driven method, and the grey-box method. The first two methods have previously received ample attention and research. The grey-box method is a modelling method that has emerged in recent years that combines the traditional physical method with the data-driven method while it aims to avoid their problems and merge their advantages. Nowadays, there are several approaches for modelling the grey-box model. However, the majority of existing reviews on grey-box methods concentrate on a specific technical approach and thus lack a comprehensive overview of modelling method perspectives. Accordingly, by conducting a comprehensive review of the literature on grey-box research in recent years, this paper classifies grey-box models into three categories from the perspective of modelling methods and provides a detailed summary of each, concluding with a synthesis of potential research opportunities in this area. The aim of this paper is to provide a foundational understanding of grey-box modelling methods for similar research, thereby removing potential barriers in the field of research methods. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ultra-Low Energy Consumption and Zero-Energy Buildings in Response to Climate Change)
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