Environmental Sustainability and Design Strategies of Future Smart Energy Systems

Dear Colleagues,

Human-induced climate change is already causing adverse impacts and damage to both nature and people, and the energy transition towards 100% renewable systems is a priority for the coming decades. The environmental, economic and social implications of this transformation should be taken into account in the design of future energy systems.

The need to overcome the single-sector approach towards a holistic and integrated one is widely demonstrated in the literature. This concept, known as the smart energy systems approach, requires the development of sector coupling technologies and innovative planning and modelling strategies for the integration of various aspects, including non-energy issues. In detail, environmental sustainability, e.g., through the application of life cycle assessment (LCA) methods, is a key aspect that is too little analysed in the design of renewable energy systems.

This Special Issue aims to collect up-to-date contributions that focus on smart energy systems and explore the implications of environmental and economic sustainability in the design of future renewable energy systems at different scales.

In this framework, original research articles and reviews are welcome. The studies can be theoretical as well as displaying the results of simulations, new calculation methods and monitoring or experimental campaigns. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Smart energy system modelling and planning at different scales;
• Applications of life cycle assessment (LCA) methods to energy and production systems;
• Policies and strategies for energy system decarbonization and climate change mitigation;
• The design and control of hybrid and integrated renewable energy systems in buildings;
• Models for building and energy management;
• Innovative retrofit solutions for existing buildings;
• Indoor and outdoor environmental quality investigation;
• Energy storage systems and sector coupling strategies;
• Hydrogen and alternative fuel applications in future energy systems;
• Decarbonization strategies in industry and transport.

Dr. Lorenzo Mario Pastore
Dr. Fiorini Costanza Vittoria
Prof. Dr. Livio De Santoli
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.

• smart energy systems
• life cycle assessment
• energy planning
• renewable energy communities
• positive energy districts
• system flexibility
• hydrogen
• hard-to-abate sectors
• energy storage
• sustainable buildings