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Sustainable Energy Management and Transformation

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2023) | Viewed by 8387

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Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Vladimir Strezov

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Guest Editor

Department of Environmental Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia
Interests: energy and environment; biomass; sustainable development; mineral processing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

One of the main challenges of today is sustainable transformation of the energy generation to economically feasible, efficient and reliable technological solutions. Renewable energy technologies with energy storage systems, the hydrogen economy, and advanced energy infrastructure will be at the forefront of the future energy transformation. This transformation requires innovation in technology development, deployment, management and policy.

The aim of the Special Issue “Sustainable Energy Management and Transformation” is to present a range of the current research trends in the efforts to transform the society to sustainable energy solutions from engineering, physical and social science perspective.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but not limited to) the following:

Renewable energy technologies (solar, wind, bioenergy, geothermal, hydroelectricity, tidal energy)
Energy storage
Renewable hydrogen
Waste to energy
Biofuels and biochar
Energy efficiency
Energy policy
Energy economics

I/We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Vladimir Strezov
Guest Editor

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

solar energy
wind power
bioenergy and biofuels
renewable hydrogen
renewable energy systems
energy policy
energy economics

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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21 pages, 2879 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Scenario Analysis of Offshore Wind-Power Systems under Uncertainty

by Antonio Casimiro Caputo, Alessandro Federici, Pacifico Marcello Pelagagge and Paolo Salini

Sustainability 2023, 15(24), 16912; https://doi.org/10.3390/su152416912 - 17 Dec 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 889

Abstract

Wind-energy systems are strongly affected by uncertainty and variability. Therefore, uncertainty sources should be considered during the economic evaluation of this type of system. In the literature, a framework for the economic performance assessment of wind-power systems has been proposed. Furthermore, in another contribution, the random discontinuities of political and regulatory scenarios have been included by using scenario analysis. However, the implemented models neglected the uncertainty related to disruptive events and the effect of climate change on the wind resource. To fill this gap, in this paper, climate change and disruptive events are included in a new model for evaluating the economic performance of wind turbine systems using scenario analysis. Analysis of a numerical example has been carried out to show the framework’s capabilities and to evaluate the effects of the added issues. The main results confirm previous findings on the necessity of including regulatory and political risks to achieve a proper economic evaluation. Additionally, they show that disruptive events increase the variability of the expected value of the Net Present Value (NPV). Therefore, even though climate change is expected to increase wind producibility in the numerical example location, the inclusion of disruptive events constrains the NPV growth. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Energy Management and Transformation)

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14 pages, 2022 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Exploring the Potential of Biomass Pyrolysis for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Production: A Comparative Study of Corn Cob, Vine Rod, and Sunflower

by Simona Domazetovska, Vladimir Strezov, Risto V. Filkoski and Tao Kan

Sustainability 2023, 15(18), 13552; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151813552 - 11 Sep 2023

Viewed by 1108

Abstract

The paper investigates the potential of biomass pyrolysis as a sustainable and renewable energy solution. The study focuses on three biomass types: corn cob, vine rod, and sunflower, which are abundant agricultural residues with potential for biofuel production. The pyrolytic gas, oil, and char produced during pyrolysis at a heating rate of 10 °C/min were analyzed. At the pyrolysis temperature of 500 °C, the corn cob showed the smallest final residual mass of 24%, while the vine rod exhibited the largest mass loss of 40%. Gas analysis revealed the concentrations of CO₂, CO, H₂, and CH₄ in the pyrolytic gas, indicating its energy potential. Sunflower presented the largest calorific value of the produced biogas, while corn cob was the lowest. The chemical composition of the bio-oils was determined, with aliphatic acids identified as the dominant compounds, suggesting their potential for biodiesel production. Fourier Transform–Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) analysis of raw biomass and char products demonstrated varying extents of decomposition among the biomass samples. A multicriteria assessment approach was employed to evaluate the differences between the selected three biomass feedstock and determined that sunflower biomass ranked the highest among the three, although the overall difference was small, confirming the suitability of all three biomass samples for pyrolysis conversion to higher-value-added fuels. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Energy Management and Transformation)

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Review

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26 pages, 1260 KiB

Open AccessReview

Energy Efficiency Management in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: Current Situation, Case Studies and Best Practices

by Stavros Gennitsaris, Miguel Castro Oliveira, George Vris, Antonis Bofilios, Theodora Ntinou, Ana Rita Frutuoso, Catarina Queiroga, John Giannatsis, Stella Sofianopoulou and Vassilis Dedoussis

Sustainability 2023, 15(4), 3727; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043727 - 17 Feb 2023

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 5949

Abstract

Energy efficiency is a key factor to meet the ambitious climate targets of the European Union (EU) aligned with the international policy directives. On their own, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) do not consume big amounts of energy, but taking into consideration that they represent about 99% of businesses worldwide, their cumulative energy consumption is remarkable. Even though SMEs experience several barriers in their effort to improve their energy efficiency, their contribution to the EU’s energy efficiency improvement targets is crucial through the implementation of measures to improve their energy footprint. The purpose of this paper is to present a comprehensive review of SMEs’ energy efficiency and energy footprint management, which has been carried out in the context of the “SMEnergy—Energy Footprint Management for SMEs” EU-funded Erasmus+ project. The correlation between energy conversion and consumption processes and energy efficiency, as well as the current situation of energy footprint management and energy management systems in SMEs, are discussed in detail. Moreover, successful case studies of SMEs that have implemented specific measures to improve their energy footprint and achieve energy efficiency targets are also included. It is highlighted that SMEs exhibit a high potential for energy efficiency enhancement that could directly promote climate change mitigation and sustainable development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Energy Management and Transformation)

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