Special Issue "Clean Energy Communities: Integration of Enhanced Buildings, Heat Pumps, Renewable and Storage Systems, and Electric Vehicle Charging Stations"

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2022.

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Domenico Mazzeo
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical, Energy and Management Engineering (DIMEG), University of Calabria, 87036 Rende, Italy
Interests: energy efficiency in buildings; energy saving in buildings; thermal energy storage; phase change materials; green roof; mathematical modeling of heat transfer; building simulation; renewable energy; photovoltaic systems; wind systems; electric vehicles; ground source heat pump system; artificial neural networks
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Dr. Mohammad Saffari
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
UCD Energy Institue, and School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Interests: energy efficiency in buildings; thermal energy storage; thermal comfort and occupants behavior; energy simulation of buildings; urban energy simulation; optimization of energy systems; demand-side management (DSM); renewable energy; HVAC systems; building automation and smart control; natural ventilation and hybrid systems
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Dr. Nicoletta Matera
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical, Energy and Management Engineering (DIMEG), University of Calabria, 87036 Rende, Italy
Interests: smart energy communities; photovoltaic systems; wind systems; electric vehicles; energy efficiency in buildings; energy saving in buildings; thermal energy storage; phase change materials; building simulation; renewable energy; artificial neural networks
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases have grown substantially in recent years as a result of the increase in anthropogenic emissions. It is widely recognized that this rapid increase is the main cause of ongoing climate change.

The reduction of energy consumption and the replacement of conventional energy sources, based on fossil fuels, with renewable energy sources, are the main actions required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other related environmental impacts.

The United Nations Paris Agreement of 2016 was a historic agreement to combat climate change, which placed a limit on the rise in global temperature. This goal requires the strengthening of initiatives to be developed at global, national, and local levels.

The current reality consists of a gigantic network of interconnected communities, and by 2030, over 60% of the population will live in urban areas. Furthermore, cities are responsible for over 70% of global CO2 emissions and consume more than two-thirds of global energy. Thus, it seems extremely important to invest in the development of sustainable cities or communities for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and energy needs, as well as mitigation of the urban heat island.

Sustainable energy communities can be considered to be those that plan to increase energy efficiency in energy production, reduce energy demand, build nearly zero-energy buildings (nZEB), and use renewable energy systems.

From this context arises the concept of the “clean energy community” (CEC), which aims to initiate a transition from conventional centralized energy systems to distributed and decentralized systems that use renewable resources available locally.

The clean energy community (CEC) is an organizational and social structure that operates in a specific reference area, made up of private and public users, with specific objectives shared by the members, such as the production, storage, consumption, supply, and distribution of cleaner energy. This transition configures consumers no longer as passive subjects, but as active figures in achieving the objectives established by international agreements. In addition, the increasingly widespread use of heat pumps for the air conditioning of environments and electric vehicles for traction will lead to an increase in the electricity required, which cannot burden the national electricity grid, but must be produced locally.

The realization of CEC requires the integration of high energy performance technologies, called "integrated community energy systems" (ICES). The architecture of ICES in a given CEC depends on the available resources and the corresponding market, incentive, and local regulatory frameworks.

The use of ICES will contribute to the following:

  • reduction of energy requirements according to the European Directives;
  • decarbonisation of electrical, heating, and cooling energy, required by domestic and tertiary users and for public services, and used in the air conditioning of buildings, production of domestic hot water, mobility, and lighting;
  • reduction of load variability;
  • reduction of the life cycle cost (LCC).

The reduction of energy needs in buildings is achieved through energy requalification interventions, in order to increase the nZEB buildings. For this reason, it is also necessary to operate on the transparent and opaque casing with the integration of materials with a high thermal performance. Another relevant aspect is the management, control, and monitoring of ICES in relation to the demand and cost of energy, instant by instant. In this regard, smart home automation is an essential technology for the reduction of energy needs and the development of CEC.

For the decarbonisation of energy at a local level, ICESs that can be used are cogeneration, heat pumps, storage of electrical and thermal energy, and also other even more decentralized technologies at affordable prices (e.g., photovoltaic and solar thermal collector, plans and concentration, and micro-wind). The achievement of CEC, and therefore local energy independence, can be even more centred through the combination of multiple renewable energy systems. Examples of very promising combined renewable energy systems are wind–photovoltaic hybrid systems with electrical storage for the production of electricity, geothermal heat pumps for the air conditioning of environments, and heat and solar thermal pumps for the production of domestic hot water.

Another advantage of CEC is load sharing, which leads to the elimination of the spikes and a greater uniformity of the load, also through their programming. This results in a reduction in the size of the plants, and a greater efficiency linked to the reduction of the partial load operation of the plants.

Examples of ICES have been successfully implemented in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Finland, and Japan, bringing both environmental and monetary benefits.

Simulation and experimental analyses are both acceptable to investigate the following CEC systems and innovative building solutions, such as:

  • Innovative building envelopes
  • Renewable systems
  • Cogeneration systems
  • Trigeneration systems
  • Vehicle-to-home or/and home-to-vehicle
  • Electric storages
  • Thermal storages

Reviews papers regarding such issues are also welcome to submit original full papers.

Dr. Domenico Mazzeo
Dr. Mohammad Saffari
Dr. Nicoletta Matera
Guest Editors

References:

  1. Mazzeo D, Matera N, De Luca P, Baglivo C, Congedo P M, Oliveti G (2021). A literature review and statistical analysis of PV-wind hybrid renewable system researches by considering the most relevant 550 articles: an upgradable matrix literature database, JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION, ISSN 0959-6526, doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.126070
  2. Mazzeo D, Matera N, De Luca P, Baglivo C, Congedo P M, Oliveti G (2020). Worldwide geographical mapping and optimization of stand-alone and grid-connected hybrid renewable system techno-economic performance across Köppen-Geiger climates, APPLIED ENERGY, vol. 276, n. 115507, ISSN 0306-2619, doi: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.115507
  3. Mazzeo D, Kontoleon KJ (2020). The role of inclination and orientation of different building roof typologies on indoor and outdoor environment thermal comfort in Italy and Greece. SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND SOCIETY, vol. 60, n. 102111, ISSN 2210-6707, doi:10.1016/j.scs.2020.102111
  4. Mazzeo D, Matera N, Cornaro C, Oliveti G, Romagnoni P, De Santoli L, EnergyPlus (2020). IDA ICE and TRNSYS predictive simulation accuracy for building thermal behaviour evaluation by using an experimental campaign in solar test boxes with and without a PCM module. ENERGY AND BUILDINGS, vol. 212, n. 109812, ISSN 0378-7788, doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2020.109812
  5. Mazzeo D, Baglivo C, Matera N, Congedo P M, Oliveti G (2020). A novel energy-economic-environmental multi-criteria decision-making in the optimization of a hybrid renewable system. SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND SOCIETY, vol. 52, n. 101780, ISSN 2210-6707, doi:10.1016/j.scs.2019.101780
  6. Mazzeo D (2019). Solar and wind assisted heat pump to meet the building air conditioning and electric energy demand in the presence of an electric vehicle charging station and battery storage. JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION, vol. 213, pp. 1228-1250, ISSN 0959-6526, doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.12.212
  7. Mazzeo D (2019), Nocturnal electric vehicle charging interacting with a residential photovoltaic-battery system: a 3E (energy, economic and environmental) analysis, ENERGY, vol. 168, pp. 310-331, ISSN 0360-5442, doi:10.1016/j.energy.2018.11.057
  8. Mazzeo D, Oliveti G, Baglivo C, Congedo P M (2018). Energy reliability-constrained method for the multi-objective optimization of a photovoltaic-wind hybrid system with battery storage. ENERGY, vol. 156, pp. 688-708, ISSN 0360-5442, doi: 10.1016/j.energy.2018.04.062
  9. Reda F, Arcuri N, Loiacono P, Mazzeo D (2015). Energy assessment of solar technologies coupled with a ground source heat pump system for residential energy supply in Southern European climates. ENERGY, vol. 91, pp. 294-305, ISSN 0360-5442, doi: 10.1016/j.energy.2015.08.040
  10. Mazzeo D, Matera N, Oliveti G (2018). Interaction between a wind-PV-battery-heat pump trigeneration system and office building electric energy demand including vehicle charging. In: 18° EEEIC International Conference on Environment and Electrical Engineering. Palermo, Italia, 12-15 June 2018, doi: 10.1109/EEEIC.2018.8493710

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Keywords

  • Building energy efficiency
  • Renewable energy
  • Energy saving
  • Energy storage
  • Energy production systems
  • Smart power, heating, and cooling districts
  • Heat pumps
  • Electric vehicles

Published Papers

This special issue is now open for submission.
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