Special Issue "Renewable Energy in Sustainable Buildings"

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 January 2022.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Fabio Fantozzi
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Energy Systems Territory and Construction Engineering, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy
Interests: heat transfer; renewable energy; energy efficiency; indoor comfort; building energy simulation
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Dr. Giacomo Cillari
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Energy, Systems, Territory and Constructions Engineering, University of Pisa, Largo Lucio Lazzarino, 2, 56122 Pisa, Italy
Interests: building performance analysis; building energy simulation; passive solar systems; solar energy; photovoltaic systems management
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The integration of renewable energy systems (RES) in buildings has become a common practice. The diffusion and promotion of the nearly zero-energy building (nZEB) concept, enhanced by national and international regulations, represents a stable and consistent driving force for the spread of RES installation in the civil sector. From the perspective of more sustainable buildings, the nZEBs can be technically achieved by different configurations, all involving appropriate building envelope insulation, system efficiency and renewable energy-based plants integration, such as, but not limited to, solar collectors and photovoltaic (PV) systems. In the last few years, we have seen a wide diffusion of PV plant installations as a consequence of the choices made by international institutions to promote energy transition. Alongside the improvements in terms of system and enevelop efficiency, indeed, an electrification of the building load has been encouraged. This process has enhanced the application of solar-assisted heat pumps (HP) in civil construction.

A common issue related to the integration of RES in buildings is proper sizing; the intrinsic intermittent nature of RES is the main cause of the mismatch between production and consumption. As a result, a surplus or deficit of production may occur, making it hard to achieve a theoretical zero-energy building. Electrical storage systems, usually looked at as the primary solution, can carry with them both technical and economic issues.

In this contest, the aim of this Special Issue is to collect contributions focusing on recent applications of RES in buildings and the civil sector. The specific element of interest is to collect information on investigations into research activities on the real application of renewable technologies and the monitoring of installed systems. Interesting topics also include management solutions, integration configurations and combined storages studies.

The main purposes are:

  • to analyze the actual configuration, highlighting critical aspects and the potential of RES integration in building;
  • to develop specific sizing strategies of the system and related combined storage solutions, so as to enhanced the penetration of RES into the civil domain;
  • to propose possible guidlines, optimization processes, and policies to promote a further diffusion of RES and an improvement of the actual self-consumption profile in nZEB buildings.

The studies are expected to link the technical and scientific context and to explore the connection with the local condition, by exploiting case studies and field data. The research should underline general guidelines to extend the penetration of RES into civil industry, as well as the findings at a design level for future optimized applications.

Dr. Fabio Fantozzi
Dr. Giacomo Cillari
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

  • building performance analysis
  • building energy simulation
  • renewable energy systems
  • solar energy
  • photovoltaic systems management

Published Papers

This special issue is now open for submission.
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