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Sustainable Transitions in Transport Energy Consumption: Self-Contained Transport Energy Systems Using Renewable Energy

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Transportation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2025 | Viewed by 1372

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Control and Computer Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
Interests: self-contained transportation energy systems; virtual power plant for integrated energy systems; EV charging infrastructure planning; V2G optimal scheduling strategy
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Guest Editor
School of Economics and Management, China University of Petroleum, Qingdao 266580, China
Interests: maritime logistics; project scheduling; inventory control; bunker management

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Control and Computer Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
Interests: self-contained transportation energy system; artificial intelligence; deep learning; intelligent dispatching

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The energy consumption of transportation systems accounts for nearly one-third of global energy demand, and it also contributes to more than 20% of carbon emissions. In the context of carbon neutrality, renewable energy has been advocated as a promising energy carrier to achieve the zero-carbon integration of transportation and energy systems. Towards a comprehensive industry application, renewable supply chains are developing into a critical nexus, closely linking transportation and energy networks. Developing self-contained transportation energy systems can significantly increase our ability to accommodate the higher penetration of renewable energy and better satisfy the demand for electric vehicle (EV) charging in highway or urban transport systems.

The aim of this Special Issue is to identify, address, and disseminate the state-of-the-art research that focuses on evaluating the merits and drawbacks of renewable energy carriers toward the integration of zero-carbon transportation–energy systems, especially using typical applications such as EV charging infrastructure with renewable energy, self-contained transport energy system planning, etc.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

TOPIC 1: Renewable energy systems for the transport sector:

  1. Power system planning, optimal load dispatch, and scheduling with high penetration of electric vehicles and renewable energy;
  2. Self-contained renewable energy system planning with road transportation;
  3. Electric vehicles charging/discharging station planning;
  4. Electric vehicles V2G techniques;
  5. Potential renewable energy energization of transport infrastructure assets;
  6. Assessment technology of the natural endowments of renewable energy in transportation systems;
  7. Transportation–energy system configuration and design.

TOPIC 2: Other sustainable techniques for the transit of transport energy:

  1. Form and adaptation mode of low-carbon-based polymorphic energy–transportation integration;
  2. Methods and technologies of carbon capture, utilization, and storage within transport systems;
  3. Strategy and policy evaluations of self-contained transport energy systems;
  4. Methodologies for environmentally sustainable energy utilization within transportation applications scenarios;
  5. Application of artificial intelligence techniques for developing integrated transportation and renewable energy systems;
  6. Information and communication techniques for enabling and supporting transportation–energy systems.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Ruifeng Shi
Dr. Fang Fu
Dr. Xingtang Wu
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. Sustainability 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 2400 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

  • renewable energy
  • self-contained transport energy systems
  • transport energy systems
  • new energy vehicles
  • electric vehicles
  • electric vehicle charging/discharging station
  • decarbonization in transport systems
  • low-carbon-based transport operation systems

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 4364 KiB  
Article
How to Fit Energy Demand Under the Constraint of EU 2030 and FIT for 55 Goals: An Italian Case Study
by Hamid Safarzadeh and Francesco Di Maria
Sustainability 2025, 17(8), 3743; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17083743 - 21 Apr 2025
Viewed by 425
Abstract
Replacing approximately 7,000,000 internal combustion vehicles by 2030 with battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and promoting renewable energy sources are among the main strategies for decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and pollution in urban areas proposed in the EU FIT 55 program. Increasing the number [...] Read more.
Replacing approximately 7,000,000 internal combustion vehicles by 2030 with battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and promoting renewable energy sources are among the main strategies for decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and pollution in urban areas proposed in the EU FIT 55 program. Increasing the number of BEVs will lead to an increase in the electrical energy demand, which, according to the FIT 55 program, will be mainly supplied by the exploitation of renewable energies. In the present study, several possible scenarios were investigated for supplying the electrical energy necessary for the 7,000,000 BEVs within the goals imposed by FIT 55. To address this objective, four scenarios were proposed and analyzed for Italy, paying attention to the renewable energy share imposed by the EU on this country. The scenarios were photovoltaic-based; wind based; nuclear power-based; and thermal resource-based. The results show that if the EU FIT 55 goals are realized and 20% of the current number of internal combustion vehicles are replaced by BEV ones, there will be an energy imbalance at different times of the day. In the first scenario, if photovoltaic resources are used to the maximum extent to address the energy deficit, a 5.5-fold increase in the number of solar panels is required compared to 2023. In the second scenario, a 2.6-fold increase in the number of existing wind turbines is estimated to be required. In the third scenario, the supply of the energy deficit from nuclear resources with the production of 8.5 kWh in the daily energy cycle is examined. The use of the BESS to store excess energy at certain hours of the day and during energy shortage hours has been examined, indicating that on average, based on different scenarios, a system with a minimum capacity of 24 gigawatts and a maximum of about 130 gigawatts will be required. The fourth scenario is also possible based on the Fit for 55 targets and the use of thermal resources. An increase of 10 to 25 gigawatts is visible in each scenario during peak energy production hours. Also, a comparison of the scenarios shows that the energy storage during the surplus hours of scenario 1 is much greater than in the other scenarios. Full article
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26 pages, 3460 KiB  
Article
Clean Energy Self-Consistent Systems for Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) Logistics Scheduling in Automated Ports
by Jie Wang, Yuqiang Li, Zhiqiang Liu and Minmin Yuan
Sustainability 2025, 17(8), 3411; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17083411 - 11 Apr 2025
Viewed by 472
Abstract
To enhance the logistics scheduling efficiency of automated guided vehicles (AGVs) in automated ports and achieve the orderly charging and battery swapping of AGVs as well as self-sufficient clean energy, this paper proposes an integrated optimization method. The method first utilizes graph theory [...] Read more.
To enhance the logistics scheduling efficiency of automated guided vehicles (AGVs) in automated ports and achieve the orderly charging and battery swapping of AGVs as well as self-sufficient clean energy, this paper proposes an integrated optimization method. The method first utilizes graph theory to construct a theoretical model that includes AGVs, the port road network, and charging and battery-swapping stations, in order to analyze the optimal logistics scheduling and charging and swapping strategies. Subsequently, for the multi-objective optimization problems in AGV logistics scheduling and charging and swapping, a fast solution method based on the immune optimization algorithm is proposed, with scheduling time and the self-sufficiency rate of clean energy for port AGVs as the constraint conditions. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed model and algorithm is verified through a simulation scenario. The results show that in the simulated port logistics scenario, after optimization, the total operation time of AGVs is significantly reduced. Compared with the cases that only consider scheduling time, the charging strategy, or wind and solar output, the average clean energy self-sufficiency rate under the proposed strategy increased by 82.7%, 27.5%, and 53.9%, respectively. In addition, as the weight of the self-sufficiency rate increases, both the total driving time and the total clean energy self-sufficiency rate of AGVs show an upward trend and are approximately linearly related. Within the specified maximum scheduling time, the actual scheduling time and self-sufficiency rate can be flexibly coordinated, with significant carbon reduction benefits. Full article
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