Selected Papers from the SDEWES 2025 Conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water, and Environment Systems

Dear Colleagues,

In recent decades, the integration and enhancement of energy efficiency across multiple sectors—including electricity, heating, cooling, transport, water, buildings, industry, waste, wastewater, forestry, and agriculture—have become increasingly crucial. In the context of a society striving for sustainability and the urgent need to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, the SDEWES Conferences have established themselves as a key platform for researchers to exchange ideas, present innovations, and disseminate knowledge.

Within this framework, energy saving and emissions reduction are essential for reducing humanity’s environmental footprint. Despite considerable progress in promoting sustainable energy solutions, important challenges remain in designing and implementing technically optimal energy systems at minimal cost. Addressing these challenges requires attention to renewable energy resources for power and heat generation, advanced sustainable energy conversion and storage systems, hydrogen technologies, power-to-X approaches, and carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) solutions.

This Special Issue aims to provide a comprehensive overview of state-of-the-art solutions for sustainable energy supply, spanning from technical analyses of energy components on both supply and demand sides to scenarios and pathways for decarbonization. Contributions are particularly welcome on topics including, but not limited to: energy efficiency in industry and buildings, smart energy systems, district heating and cooling, cogeneration, trigeneration, polygeneration, biofuels and alternative fuels, hybrid and electric vehicles, waste-to-energy, the biocircular economy, the water–energy–food nexus, electricity transmission and distribution, digitalization and AI applications for energy systems, energy storage and batteries, energy markets and policy, gas security of supply, climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies, decarbonization pathways, and resilience of energy infrastructure.

The 20^th Conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems – SDEWES Conference will be held on the 5–10 October 2025 in Dubrovnik (Croatia). The 1^st African SDEWES Conference was held on the 27–31 May 2025 in Oujda – Saidia (Morocco). These SDEWES Conferences are dedicated to the improvement and dissemination of knowledge concerning methods, policies, and technologies for increasing the sustainability of development by de-coupling growth from natural resources and replacing resource exploitation with a knowledge-based economy, taking into account economic, environmental, and social pillars.

We especially encourage submissions that explore integrated energy systems without traditional sector boundaries, highlighting synergies across electricity, heating, cooling, transport, and industrial demands.

Prof. Dr. Francesco Calise
Dr. Maria Vicidomini
Prof. Dr. Qiuwang Wang
Prof. Dr. Wenxiao Chu
Prof. Dr. Poul Alberg Østergaard
Guest Editors

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• renewable energy resources
• power and heat generation
• advanced energy storage systems
• power-to-X
• hydrogen economy and technologies
• carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS)
• energy efficiency in industry and buildings
• smart energy systems
• district heating and/or cooling
• cogeneration, trigeneration, polygeneration
• biofuels and alternative fuels
• hybrid and electric vehicles
• waste-to-energy
• biocircular economy
• water–energy–food nexus
• electricity transmission and distribution
• digitalization and AI for energy systems
• energy storage and batteries
• energy markets
• energy policy
• gas security of supply
• climate change mitigation strategies
• decarbonization pathways
• resilience of energy infrastructure