Special Issue "Sustainable Integration of Renewable Power Generation Systems"

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Paolo Sdringola
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Energy Efficiency Department, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, 00123 Rome, Italy
Interests: energy conversion systems for traditional and renewables sources; CHP/CCHP and district heating; energy efficiency in civil and industrial sectors; energy audits and monitoring; environmental impacts and containment technologies; energy efficiency and mini grid at high altitude; life cycle assessment (LCA) and carbon footprint of products and processes; carbon credits
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Umberto Desideri
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Energy, System, Territory and Construction Engineering, University of Pisa, 56122 Pisa, Italy
Interests: innovative and high efficiency fossil fired power generation systems; renewable energy systems; hydrogen and fuel cells; carbon capture and storage; energy saving in buildings and industry; tri-generation and polygeneration; energy efficient buildings; building integrated renewable energy systems; LCA (life cycle assessment) and carbon footprint studies
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent decades, sustainable development has been one of the main objectives in the global agenda, across geographical and economic boundaries. Energy plays a decisive role in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as employment growth, industry, innovation, and infrastructure,  sustainable cities and communities, clean energy, and climate change.

At the global level, the energy sector is responsible for more than two-thirds of greenhouse gas emissions and 80% of CO2. Alongside lower future demand for energy in the heating and cooling sector, a shift to increased demand for electricity due to household electrical appliances, and electrification in heating and transport are expected. In order to reduce anthropogenic emissions and complete the decarbonisation of the global economy, achieving climate neutrality in the second half of the century, effective actions should involve energy production, storage, transmission, distribution, and usage, with the support of efficient technologies, management models, the integration of clean and renewable sources, the integration of different utility grids and users currently not considered in energy demand and supply, such as water distribution, electric transport, innovative power to chemicals and power to fuel technologies and integration of power generation with district heating networks. An increasing share of demand load covered by distributed generation and non-programmable renewable sources is expected, resulting in the reliability and quality of energy supplied, reduced environmental impact, lower transmission and distribution losses, and better seasonal balancing of the load profile.

The Special Issue focuses on the Sustainable Integration of Renewable Power Generation Systems, to gather knowlodge on innovation, research, and demonstration activities and results in energy conservation, conversion, renewable technology penetration and improved energy efficiency, in order to be an overall framework for scientists, researchers, policy and decision makers. They may include different territorial scales (country, city, district, single building unit), cross-cutting technologies, energy-related products and services, the identification of parties and roles (producers, users, aggregators, etc.), as well as energy, environmental, social and economic impacts of sustainable integration strategies.

Authors are encouraged to submit contributions on methods, tools, applications and practices on the following topics:

  • energy (co)generation, storage, transmission, distribution, and usage: strategies, applications and implications of energy efficiency;
  • renewable energy sources, as biomass, solar, wind, and geothermal: technologies, distributed or centralized (poly)generation plants; integrated management of energy vectors;
  • energy processes, systems and services: modeling, analysis and optimization;
  • distributed generation: infrastructures; supply-side/demand-side management; integration strageties; hybrid systems for generation and storage;
  • integration of renewable energy with different utilization grids: transport, water distribution, heat/cooling district heating, power to gas and power to fuel technologies;
  • green chemicals from renewable energy;
  • efficient energy networks: neutral and low temperature district heating; integration of renewable sources, heat recovery, and high-efficiency generation plants; prosumer engagement tools;
  • multi-target optimisation models;
  • integration of thermal and electrical energy storages;
  • smart mini grid, energy community, and collective self-consumption from renewable systems;
  • energy transition of non-interconnected areas;
  • power-to-heat/-cool and power-to-heat-to-power strategies for grid balancing;
  • financing support schemes;
  • impact assessment and mitigation of environmental pollutants.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Electrochem.

Dr. Paolo Sdringola
Prof. Dr. Umberto Desideri
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 papers will be 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 1900 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

  • energy supply
  • renewables energy integration
  • energy processes systems and services
  • energy efficiency and energy saving
  • innovative energy technologies and components
  • energy storage, transmission and distribution
  • energy management (supply-side/demand-side)
  • distributed generation
  • cogeneration and poly-generation
  • district energy systems
  • energy communities
  • remote electrification and energy supply
  • climate change mitigation
  • environmental impact reduction
  • energy policies

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

Article
Energy Transition toward Cleaner Energy Resources in Nepal
Sustainability 2021, 13(8), 4243; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13084243 - 11 Apr 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 819
Abstract
Energy is an important input for socioeconomic development and human well-being. The rationality of energy transitions toward cleaner energy resources is not only to improve individual living conditions, but also to enhance the economic growth of a nation. Nepal is considered to be [...] Read more.
Energy is an important input for socioeconomic development and human well-being. The rationality of energy transitions toward cleaner energy resources is not only to improve individual living conditions, but also to enhance the economic growth of a nation. Nepal is considered to be one of the countries with a low per-capita electricity use, heavily relying on traditional energy resources such as firewood and agricultural residues. The country is rich in hydropower resources. However, various economic and socioeconomic constraints have left the significant potential for hydroelectricity untapped. This study describes the energy transition patterns in Nepal based on a literature review and field survey of household energy use in the winter. We collected data from 516 households in the Solukhumbu, Panchthar, and Jhapa districts of Nepal. The rate of per-capita electricity consumption was 330 kWh/capita/year, which is significantly lower than that of other contemporary global societies such as India 1000 and China 4900 kWh/capita/year. The increasing trend in hydroelectricity production has optimistically transformed the energy sector toward cleaner resources; this correlates with the GDP per capita. Solar home systems, mini- and micro-hydropower plants, biogas technology, and improved cook stoves have been widely used, which has lowered the health and environmental burdens in rural areas. By analysing the survey data, we found that 25% of the households only relied on traditional cooking fuel, while 67% and 8% of the households relied on mixed and commercial cooking fuels, respectively. Moreover, 77% and 48% of traditional and mixed-fuel-using households were unhappy with current cooking fuels while 40% and 66% of these households preferred to use clean cooking fuels. The share of traditional energy resources decreased from 78% to 68%, while that of commercial energy resources increased from 20% to 28% from 2014/15 to 2019/20. This study suggests that future energy policies and programs should acknowledge the reality of energy transition to achieve sustainability by establishing reliable and clean sources of energy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Integration of Renewable Power Generation Systems)
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Planned Papers

The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.

Title: Optimal Photovoltaic Investment Plan under Korean Renewable Portfolio Standard Markets Using the Least-Squares Monte Carlo Method
Authors: Sung-Kwan Joo
Affiliation: School of Electrical Engineering, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Korea
Abstract: The highly volatile Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) spot market price, the unpredictable System Marginal Price (SMP), and intermittent solar power characteristics cause high revenue uncertainty levels for renewable energy investors. The existing methods treat these elements as robust data and thus fail to handle uncertain factors. This paper presents the deployment of the Least-Squares Monte Carlo when evaluating Photovoltaic (PV) investment plans, considering uncertainties in price factors. The prediction of the PV revenue with price elements' uncertainty, such as generated solar power, SMP, and REC is handled in advance of examining the investment plan. Then, Least-Squares Monte Carlo simulation is used to solve the PV generation investment decision, providing insight into the optimal timing for investing in the REC spot market with a specific installed solar capacity.

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