Next-Generation Clean Technologies for Low-Carbon Economy Transition

Dear Colleagues,

The transition to a low-carbon economy is imperative to avoid the impacts of climate change and meet emission reduction targets in line with the Paris Agreement. However, net zero transition entails a monumental shift away from fossil fuels across all sectors of society and the economy. Next-generation clean energy technologies will play a central role in enabling this transition in a cost-effective and socially inclusive manner. This Special Issue seeks contributions that highlight cutting-edge research and innovation in key low-carbon technology areas including carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, renewables, smart grids, digitalization, and beyond.

A core focus is on examining these emerging technologies from a systemic perspective, considering integration challenges, economic feasibility, and social dimensions that will shape their widespread adoption and impact. Contributions that analyse next-generation technologies in the broader context of full-scale decarbonization of energy, industry, buildings, and transportation are strongly encouraged. Furthermore, research that addresses linkages between technological innovation and the policies, regulations, incentives, and public engagement needed to support deployment at scale is within this Special Issue’s scope.

Rapid advancements in digital technologies, data science, artificial intelligence, and advanced manufacturing present new opportunities to manage highly complex and distributed clean energy systems. At the same time, insights from the social sciences and humanities help ensure equity, ethics, and justice in the low-carbon transition. This Special Issue provides an interdisciplinary forum to assess the latest innovations that can accelerate affordable decarbonization across all sectors of the economy. The next wave of clean energy technologies promises a future of sustainable and shared prosperity compatible with planetary boundaries. However, realising this potential will require both technical excellence and cooperative efforts between researchers, industry, government, and civil society. Contributions that reflect this holistic perspective are welcomed.

We welcome original research articles and reviews on technologies including, but not limited to, the following topics:

• Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS)—novel approaches to CO₂ capture, conversion of CO₂ to value-added products, integration of CCUS with industrial processes.
• Hydrogen—production, storage, distribution, and utilization of clean hydrogen across energy, transport, and industrial sectors.
• Nuclear—novel nuclear reactors, including small and micro modular reactors, and their integration with industrial processes.
• Renewable energy—improvements in renewable power generation from solar, wind, geothermal, tidal, and other renewables. Integration of high shares of renewables through smart grids, storage, and sector coupling.
• Digitalization—leveraging big data, artificial intelligence, blockchain and other emerging digital technologies to enable optimal management and coordination of low-carbon energy systems.
• Social perspectives—research into consumer behaviour, policy, environmental justice and just transition considerations to gain public acceptance and enable an equitable transition.
• Policy and market design—effective policy mechanisms, market reforms, incentives, and regulations to accelerate the development and adoption of low-carbon technologies.

Cutting-edge studies focusing on next-generation technology improvements as well as their integration into wider low-carbon energy systems are within the scope of this Special Issue. Contributions employing technical, economic, social, environmental and policy perspectives to advance low-carbon technologies are encouraged.

Prof. Dr. Dawid P. Hanak
Prof. Dr. Kumar Patchigolla
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. Energies 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 2600 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.

• net-zero transition
• low-carbon technologies
• just transition
• carbon capture and utilization
• CCUS
• hydrogen
• renewable energy sources
• nuclear energy
• net zero