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Renewable Energy Integration and Application in Buildings for Carbon Neutrality 2nd Edition

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Published Papers

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2025 | Viewed by 2071

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Lin Lu

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Guest Editor

Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
Interests: renewable energy technologies and applications in buildings; fundamentals of fluid mechanics and heat/mass transfer to enhance building energy systems; engineered nanomaterial development towards energy smart building envelopes
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Jianheng Chen

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Guest Editor

Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
Interests: renewable energy technologies; building energy conservation; radiative sky cooling; solar energy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In view of the rapid development of renewable energy technologies and the goal of achieving Net Zero Energy Buildings as well as the growing demand for carbon neutrality, it is crucial to provide efficient renewable energy utilization technologies for building energy saving. Accordingly, papers submitted for consideration for publication in this Special Issue should advance and disseminate the body of knowledge related to renewable energy technologies integrated with green buildings to achieve sustainable, high-performance and low-energy building systems. The Special Issue aims to serve researchers, engineers, and other stakeholders to help them keep abreast of the latest development of alternative renewable energy solutions to current building practices. Acceptable topics include original reviews of past practices, advanced and up-to-date information of current interests, or exploration of new concepts pertinent to renewable energy technologies integrated with buildings. Cutting-edge renewable energy technologies in realizing net zero energy and carbon neutrality for buildings are highly encouraged so as to promote information and knowledge exchange on the frontier scientific research, and to contribute to the sustainable development of the building industry. The Special Issue covers all aspects of science and technology concerned with renewable energy development, utilization, storage, and integration with building systems. Articles related to but not limited to the following topics are encouraged to be submitted in this Special Issue:

Renewable energy technologies (solar thermal, solar photovoltaic, wind, geothermal, etc.) and their integration with buildings
Green building materials
Energy demand and management, and smart buildings
Climate responsive architectural design
Energy efficient building envelope and system
Low-energy architecture
Hydrogen and fuel cell technology integrated with buildings
Building energy systems, conservation, and generation
Economics of green building and cost models/methods
Emerging technologies for sustainable facilities and infrastructure
Full-spectrum solar energy utilization in buildings
Thermal and electrical energy storage systems
Radiative sky cooling technologies integrated with buildings
Energy sharing and trading among building sectors

Note that papers should be within the scope of the “Renewable Energy, Sustainable Buildings and Carbon Neutrality” and the submitted papers are encouraged to address the connections between renewable energy applications and sustainable buildings.

Prof. Dr. Lin Lu
Dr. Jianheng Chen
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

renewable energy
building energy
energy efficiency
energy storage
green buildings
building envelope
energy flexibility and management
sustainable infrastructure
carbon neutrality

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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20 pages, 2745 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Feasibility Analysis of Indirect Evaporative Cooling System Assisted by Liquid Desiccant for Data Centers in Hot-Humid Regions

by Wenchao Shi, Xiaochen Ma, Yunran Min and Hongxing Yang

Sustainability 2024, 16(5), 2011; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16052011 - 29 Feb 2024

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Abstract

The rapid development of data centers (DCs) has led to a marked increase in energy consumption in recent years, which poses a direct challenge to global efforts aimed at reducing carbon emissions. In regions with hot and humid climates, the energy demand is largely driven by air conditioning systems necessarily to maintain appropriate operational temperatures. This study proposes a novel multi-stage indirect evaporative cooling (IEC) system, incorporating a liquid desiccant in the primary air channel to address the cooling demands of such DCs. Our approach involves a two-stage process where the first stage uses a liquid desiccant-based IEC (LD-IEC) for air dehumidification and the second stage utilizes the treated air from the first stage as the secondary air to enhance the cooling effect. A simulation model of the proposed system is established with validation, and the performance of the multi-stage system was also discussed based on different operation modes. Furthermore, a case study was conducted to investigate the feasibility of using this system in the DC under a typical hot and humid zone. The findings reveal that the first-stage LD-IEC is capable of diminishing the wet-bulb temperature of the ambient air. Furthermore, the case study demonstrates that the proposed system can greatly improve the temperature drop by 72.7% compared to the single IEC, which noticeably reduces the operation time of energy-intensive supplementary cooling equipment from 5092 h to 31 h given the supply air temperature threshold of 25 °C. In summary, the proposed system could substantially decrease reliance on traditional cooling systems, which demonstrates a promising avenue to fully use this passive cooling technology for cooling DCs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Renewable Energy Integration and Application in Buildings for Carbon Neutrality 2nd Edition)

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21 pages, 5139 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Study of Heat Transfer Characteristics and Economic Analysis of a Closed Deep Coaxial Geothermal Heat Exchanger Retrofitted from an Abandoned Oil Well

by Rui-Jia Liu, Lin-Rui Jia, Wen-Shuo Zhang, Ming-Zhi Yu, Xu-Dong Zhao and Ping Cui

Sustainability 2024, 16(4), 1603; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16041603 - 14 Feb 2024

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Abstract

It is economical to transform abandoned oil/geothermal wells into closed deep geothermal heat exchangers with coaxial tubes. A numerical model of a coaxial geothermal heat exchanger (CGHE) with varying borehole diameters is established according to an abandoned well in Northern China. The finite difference method is adopted to solve the temperature distribution, and the accuracy of the model is validated with experimental data. Based on the existing structure of the abandoned well with different depths, the feasibility of its conversion into a deep CGHE is discussed, and this study uses the orthogonal experimental method to analyze the influence of four main factors and their significance level on the average heat extraction rate, with the heat extraction rate up to 422.18 kW in the optimal combination. This study also integrates with actual project considerations and conducts an economic analysis to determine the most appropriate circulation fluid flow rate. The results highlight the key factors on the heat transfer performance of the CGHE, with the inlet water temperature to the CGHE being the most significant, followed by the configuration of the CGHE retrofitted from abandoned. From the economic perspective, given that the CGHE in this study is retrofitted from the abandoned oil Wells, the drilling cost can be reduced by up to CNY 1800 thousand, and the flow rate design of 35 m³/h is the optimal choice, ensuring a cost-effective system operation while meeting the operational requirements of the deep CGHE. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Renewable Energy Integration and Application in Buildings for Carbon Neutrality 2nd Edition)

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Review

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27 pages, 4771 KiB

Open AccessReview

Advancing Sustainable Development: Broad Applications of Passive Radiative Cooling

by Lin Liang, Shengxi Bai, Kaixin Lin, Chui Ting Kwok, Siru Chen, Yihao Zhu and Chi Yan Tso

Sustainability 2024, 16(6), 2346; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16062346 - 12 Mar 2024

Viewed by 772

Abstract

With the increasing demand for energy worldwide, researchers from different fields have been striving to improve the sustainability and proper utilization of energy resources. Passive radiative cooling, as a natural energy transport method, can achieve cooling without additional external energy input. This review provides a comprehensive examination of passive radiative cooling, including its fundamental theories and latest development. A particular emphasis is placed on the diverse range of fields where passive radiative cooling has been applied, notably including but not limited to construction and architecture. The current state of applications, potential challenges that may arise with wider adaption and promising research directions for each field are thoroughly discussed. This review emphasizes the extensive potential and practical viability of passive radiative cooling in diverse applications and identifies pressing challenges and future research directions aimed at scaling up real-world implementation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Renewable Energy Integration and Application in Buildings for Carbon Neutrality 2nd Edition)

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