Sustainability of Energy Transition Scenarios: Economic, Resource Availability, and Environmental Impacts

Dear Colleagues,

A multi-disciplinary assessment of potential decarbonization scenarios with large penetration of variable renewable electricity (VRE) and energy storage systems (ESS) is essential due to the ongoing energy transition we have been experiencing worldwide.

In addition to the sustainability analysis of each electricity technology, it is also especially important to assess the impacts of the electricity grids intended as a whole, both from static and dynamic perspectives. It is crucial to take into account the material-, water-, and energy-constraints as well as the tecno-economic impacts to provide useful indications to the R&D community and policy makers.

From an environmental and energy perspective, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Net Energy Analysis (NEA) are useful scientific methodologies, which can provide holistic pictures of the total environmental footprint and their associated impacts to our society. In particular, LCA allows the quantification of the "cradle to grave" potential impacts in terms of carbon emissions, cumulative energy demand, resource availability and other environmental and toxicity impacts; while NEA offers the evaluation Energy Return on Energy Investment (EROI) of conventional and renewable technologies.

This Special Issue will cover sustainability assessments—including the energy, environmental, and economic dimensions—of potential scenarios with large deployment of renewables and energy storage systems, taking into account the resource availability, material flow analysis, recycling, evaluation of macro energy scenarios, energy return on energy investment (EROI), and techno-economic implications.

Dr. Enrica Leccisi
Prof. Dr. Vasilis Fthenakis
Dr. Marco Raugei
Guest Editors

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