Bridging the Circular Economy and Renewable Energy Dichotomy

Dear Colleagues,

While the circular economy is often claimed to focus on both material and energy flows, these are often approached separately. With this special issue we aim to bridge these two domains both in practice and in academia. One way to achieve this is to make the energy use for the circular economy more sustainable by integrating renewable energy into various production and consumptions processes, ranging from manufacturing and use to reuse and recycling of materials, components and products. Another option is to make renewable energy technologies part of a circular economy. The renewable energy technologies such as solar panels, wind turbines and batteries often use critical and composite materials that create high environmental impacts during their extraction and manufacturing. As such, these technologies and products should be designed by taking into account the principles of a circular economy.

For this special issue we will focus on how to manage the interplay between circular economy and renewable energy. In particular, we aim to  present research that provides guidance to the stakeholders in the field on how to act and facilitate the transition towards a circular economy. Potential theoretical approaches include, but are not limited to sustainable business models, sustainable entrepreneurship, ecosystems, open innovation, transition studies and industrial ecology. We welcome diverse methodological approaches and studies from both developing and developed world perspectives.

We look forward to receiving your articles!

Kind regards,

Dr. J.C.C.M. (Boukje) Huijben
Dr. D. (Duygu) Keskin
Dr. A.S.A. (Annelies) Bobelyn
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• circular economy
• renewable energy
• transition
• management approaches
• business models
• ecosystems
• open innovation
• sustainable entrepreneurship
• industrial ecology