Sustainable Energy Systems: From Primary to End-Use

Dear Colleagues,

The long-term transformation of the energy industry, from fossil to sustainable energy sources, is one of the central challenges of the 21st century. Such a transition requires many changes on a technical and organizational level. The successful implementation of the energy transition requires not only sufficient generation capacity from renewable energies, but also an efficient, intelligent, decentralized and secure infrastructure for the distribution, storage and use of electricity and heat. The resulting change in the energy industry poses major challenges for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in particular. On the one hand, this creates great opportunities for the development of new business models, products and processes, on the other hand, a stronger networking of decentralized system components also entails risks, which are due in particular to the increased use of information and communication technology (ICT) and the automation of processes. The goal must therefore be to create solutions for a sustainable energy system that is economically, environmentally and socially viable, while meeting high security requirements.

This Special Issue will focus on sustainable energy systems. On the one hand, several innovative and alternative concepts could be presented, but also the topics of energy policy, circular economy, life cycle assessment and supply chain could play a major role. Models on various temporal and geographical scales could be developed to understand the conditions of technical as well as organizational change. New methods of modeling, which can fulfil technical and physical boundary conditions and nevertheless consider economic environmental and social aspects, could be developed.

Prof. Dr. João Carlos de Oliveira Matias
Dr. Radu Godina
Dr. Leonel Nunes
Guest Editors

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