Special Issue "Heating and Cooling: Mapping and Planning of Energy Systems"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Simon Pezzutto
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute for Renewable Energy, EURAC research, Bolzano/Bozen, Viale Druso 1, 39100, Italy
Interests: heating and cooling; smart cities; energy economics; R&D funding
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Dr. Antonio Novelli
E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
Institute for Renewable Energy, EURAC Research, Bolzano/Bozen, Viale Druso 1, 39100 Bozen, Italy
Interests: mapping; planning; remote sensing; big data
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Heating and cooling (H&C) in buildings and industry accounts for half of EU's energy consumption. According to 2018 figures, approximately 75% of H&C is still generated from fossil fuels while only 19% is generated from renewable energy. While the EU heating market is already well researched since decades, there is a lack of information concerning cooling. Almost no data is available for the air-conditioning (AC) part. A proper investigation to determine this type of information has not been carried out yet. In contrast to space heating, space cooling consumption is growing and growing at EU level. Space cooling consumption is especially growing in Europe’s residential sector. A significant increase of consumption for this type of energy use is expected in coming decades for EU28 Member States (MSs).

The availability of spatialized data on buildings and industry as well as on its energy need (in particular on H&C) at multiple level, is crucial for sustainable strategic heating and cooling planning. In this sense, one of the most important challenges today concerns district heating/cooling (DHC) plants.

This Special Issue will gather original research in the field of mapping and planning of energy systems (in particular on H&C). Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following: space heating, space cooling, domestic hot water (DHW), process heat, process cooling, small power appliances, electricity network, demand response, mapping, remote sensing, big data and planning. The area of investigation is not limited to the EU.

Dr. Simon Pezzutto
Dr. Antonio Novelli
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

  • Heating and Cooling
  • Mapping
  • Planning
  • Big data

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

Article
Decarbonizing District Heating in EU-27 + UK: How Much Excess Heat Is Available from Industrial Sites?
Sustainability 2021, 13(3), 1439; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031439 - 29 Jan 2021
Viewed by 680
Abstract
Energy-intensive industries across the EU-28 release unused heat into the environment. This excess heat can be utilized for district heating systems. However, this is the exception today, and the potential contribution to the decarbonization of district heating is not well quantified. An estimation [...] Read more.
Energy-intensive industries across the EU-28 release unused heat into the environment. This excess heat can be utilized for district heating systems. However, this is the exception today, and the potential contribution to the decarbonization of district heating is not well quantified. An estimation of excess heat, based on industrial processes, and spatial matching to district heating areas is necessary. We present a georeferenced industrial database with annual production and excess heat potentials at different temperature levels matched with current and possible district heating areas. Our results show a total potential of 960 PJ/a (267 TWh/a) of excess heat when the exhaust gases are cooled down to 25 °C, with 47% of the 1.608 studied industrial sites inside or within a 10 km distance of district heating areas. The calculated potentials reveal that currently 230 PJ/a (64 TWh/a) of excess heat is available for district heating areas, about 17% of today’s demand of buildings for district heating. In the future, widespread and low-temperature district heating areas increase the available excess heat to 258 PJ/a (72 TWh/a) at 55 °C or 679 PJ/a (189 TWh/a) at 25 °C. We show that industrial excess heat can substantially contribute to decarbonize district heating, however, the major share of heat will need to be supplied by renewables. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heating and Cooling: Mapping and Planning of Energy Systems)
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