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Net-Zero-Energy Building Solutions for Sustainability

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2024) | Viewed by 1619

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Natural and Built Environment, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast BT9 6AZ, UK
Interests: construction project management; building energy; low and zero carbon buildings; digital built environment

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Construction Management, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China
Interests: building energy performance analysis; building energy efficiency management; smart cities

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

A net-zero energy building (NZEB) is an architectural structure that is designed and built to produce as much energy as it consumes during a year. The achievement of NZEBs requires not only efficiency measures to save energy but also renewable energy and other technologies to meet energy demands. In recent years, NZEBs have become increasingly popular in the built environment. They have the potential to reduce carbon emissions, mitigate climate change, optimize building energy efficiency, and incorporate renewable energy resources.

This Special Issue aims to establish a platform for innovative strategies and promising solutions that improve the performance of NZEBs throughout their lifecycles, contributing to a more sustainable built environment. In this issue, potential topics include, but are not limited to:

  1. Innovative envelope materials and advanced design and construction solutions for NZEBs;
  2. Energy-efficient heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems and renewable energy integration in NZEBs;
  3. Smart technologies and digital twins for NZEBs;
  4. The role of renewable energy technologies in achieving NZEB goals;
  5. Retrofitting existing buildings towards the achievement of NZEBs;
  6. Passive house principles, technologies, and applications for NZEBs;
  7. Life cycle assessment (LCA) and environmental impact analysis (EIA) of NZEBs;
  8. Occupant behavior and user-centric approaches for achieving NZEBs;
  9. Policies, regulations, and incentives for promoting NZEB development;
  10. Case studies on successful NZEB projects: lessons learned and best practices. 

These topics range from the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of NZEBs. They cover a range of aspects related to sustainable NZEBs, such as principles, approaches, technologies, policies, etc. Based on these topics, it is possible for researchers and practitioners to have a comprehensive and thorough understanding of how to achieve net-zero energy goals in today’s built environment.   

Dr. Xianhai Meng
Dr. Sha Liu
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

  • net-zero energy building
  • sustainable built environment
  • renewable energy
  • building lifecycle
  • smart building technologies

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

26 pages, 3317 KiB  
Review
A Comprehensive Review on Technologies for Achieving Zero-Energy Buildings
by Yushi Wang, Beining Hu, Xianhai Meng and Runjin Xiao
Sustainability 2024, 16(24), 10941; https://doi.org/10.3390/su162410941 - 13 Dec 2024
Viewed by 852
Abstract
The booming of the building industry has led to a sharp increase in energy consumption. The advancement of zero-energy buildings (ZEBs) is of great significance in mitigating climate change, improving energy efficiency, and thus realizing sustainable development of buildings. This paper reviews the [...] Read more.
The booming of the building industry has led to a sharp increase in energy consumption. The advancement of zero-energy buildings (ZEBs) is of great significance in mitigating climate change, improving energy efficiency, and thus realizing sustainable development of buildings. This paper reviews the recent progress of key technologies utilized in ZEBs, including energy-efficient measures (EEMs), renewable energy technologies (RETs), and building energy management system (BEMS), aiming to provide reference and support of the wider implementation of ZEBs. EEMs can reduce energy demand by optimizing the envelope design, phase change materials integration, efficient HVAC systems, and user behavior. The renewable energy sources discussed here are solar, biomass, wind, and geothermal energy, including distributed energy systems introduced to integrated various renewable resources and meet users’ demand. This study focuses on the application of building energy management in ZEBs, including energy use control, fault detection and diagnosis, and management optimization. The recent development of these three technologies mainly focuses on the combination with artificial intelligence (AI). In addition, this paper also emphasizes possible future research works about user behavior and zero-energy communities to improve the energy efficiency from a more complicated perspective. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Net-Zero-Energy Building Solutions for Sustainability)
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