Transition of the Energy Systems and the Development of Urban Functional Areas

Dear Colleagues, 

It is difficult to imagine the development of modern civilization without ensuring the sustainability of energy supplies. Energy systems, which consist of, production, transmission, distribution, and consumption of energy, are currently facing the challenge of transformation, related primarily to the transition to ways of generating energy that will not produce carbon dioxide emissions. Another equally important aspect of the transformation of energy systems is the need to increase the diversification of energy sources, in particular, decreasing dependence on supplies from specific geographic regions, bearing in mind the political perturbations that realistically exist and could potentially occur (e.g., fossil fuel supplies from Russia). The change in energy sources dictated by the above conditions is usually combined with an increase in the share of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) in the energy balance. Taking into account the physical specificity of these sources, the way and nature of the processes of generating energy from them— increasing their use implies a change in the way the energy system is organized—in particular, a shift from a centralized model of energy production based on large utility power sources to a decentralized model using local and distributed energy resources connected to the grid. An important condition related to the energy transition is also the progressive development of economy 4.0, one of the characteristics of which is a rather radical increase in the demand for electricity while ensuring the stability and sustainability of its supply to various types of end users. It can be argued that the currently observed increase in energy prices has been, is, and will be a phenomenon constantly accompanying the development of civilization, which implies the need to seek innovations that ensure a sustainable supply of clean energy at socially acceptable costs.

The necessity of the energy transition mentioned above becomes apparent in areas with high concentrations of population and socio-economic activity—cities and highly urbanized areas (Functional Urban Areas, FUAs). FUAs are those places in geographic space where the processes of consumption of the physical resources of the environment (including energy) are concentrated, as well as the effects of anthropogenic pressure associated with this (including the effects of climate change). This means that the energy transformation of urbanized areas becomes a special challenge in the context of organizing new modes of production–transmission–distribution–consumption in these areas, aimed at the same time at mitigating and adapting urban spaces to climate change, ensuring the sustainability and stability of energy supply, and preventing energy poverty.

When discussing the problem of reorganizing energy systems in urban areas in the context of increasing the share of RES and the development of distributed generation and distributed energy production, including prosumer energy production, one should also pay attention to how new forms of energy production, distribution, and consumption will affect the functional and spatial structure of the city, and how this structure determines the efficiency of energy systems? How will the new model of urbanization take shape, and how will it affect future architecture and construction? Distributed and decentralized energy production raises the threat of progressive urban sprawl and, consequently, various negative consequences—mainly environmental and social. From this reflection, we can conclude that the energy transformation of cities should be linked to the spatial policy and development planning of the settlement system. Thus, energy transformation requires the integration of spatial and energy policies oriented, on the one hand, to the modernization of the energy system (given the aforementioned challenges) as well as to the optimization of spatial development.

This Special Issue aims to identify and discuss the problems associated with the transformation of urban energy systems and their consequences on spatial development and the functional structure of urbanized areas. Both diagnostic–analytical and theoretical–conceptual works showing possible directions for solving the problems outlined above will be expected, as well as articles that demonstrate practical achievements in this area (analyses of the effectiveness of public policies, planning and programming practices, design practices, and implementation).

Topics of interest to the publication include (but not exclusively):

• Local energy policy, spatial policy, and planning, integration of energy and spatial policy, Integrated Resources Planning (IRP);
• Supply-side management and demand-side management of the energy market;
• Development of local, decentralized energy systems—energy based on the use of distributed sources;
• Renewable energy sources in urbanized areas;
• Functional and spatial structure of the city and the possibilities of energy production and supply;
• Spatial implications of the development of Economy 4.0 in urbanized areas;
• New technical and technological solutions for energy production, distribution, and consumption in urbanized areas (e.g., prosumer energy, photovoltaics, geothermal, passive construction, etc.);
• Green urbanism, green architecture, green construction;
• Threats of energy poverty and its socio-economic consequences;
• Energy security in functional urban areas;
• Opportunities, constraints, and barriers to the development of renewable energy sources in urban areas;
• Opportunities and practices for energy conservation/conservation, as well as energy efficiency in urban areas;
• Hydrogen management and water management.

Dr. Dorota Sikora-Fernandez
Dr. Dominik Drzazga
Prof. Dr. Tadeusz Markowski
Guest Editors

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• energy
• energy system
• energy efficiency
• renewable energy sources
• urbanization
• green buildings
• functional areas
• urban planning
• spatial structure
• urban policy
• settlement policy
• energy policy
• energy planning
• energy transition
• energy security