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A Pathway to Renewable Energy Promotion for Achieving Low-Carbon Energy Networks: Electricity, District Heating and District Cooling Networks

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 17599

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Ali Khosravi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical Engineering—Energy Efficiency and Systems, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
Interests: energy systems
Dr. Mohammad Malekan

E-Mail Website
Co-Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Aarhus University, Denmark
Interests: Mechanical Engineering
Prof. Dr. Juan Jose Garcia Pabon

E-Mail Website
Co-Guest Editor
Institute of Mechanical Engineering, Federal University of Itajubá (UNIFEI), Av. BPS, Itajubá 37500-903, Brazil
Interests: refrigeration; two-phase flow; energy; solar; heating water
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are organizing a Special Issue that may be of interest to you, due to your work in the field. As Guest Editors, we cordially invite you to submit a manuscript to the Special Issue “A Pathway to Renewable Energy Promotion for Achieving Low-Carbon Energy Networks: Electricity, District Heating and District Cooling Networks“ to be published in Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050, IF: 2.592, https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability), an international, open access journal on all aspects of sustainability published online by MDPI. The scope of the Special Issue is renewable energy systems, energy systems, waste heat, energy storage, power to X and heat pumps.

The European Parliament is on the verge of approving the legislative proposals of the 2016 Clean Energy for All Europeans package. The aim of the strategy is to give Europeans access to secure, affordable and climate-friendly energy and making the European Union (EU) the world leader in renewable energy. The package sets targets for further reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, for energy efficiency and for increasing renewable energy by the year 2030. These are based on the Council's previous policy outline on 80–95% of emission reductions by 2050, which is in line with the international agreement limiting warming to no more than two degrees. The EU roadmaps for 2050 were drawn up according to the 80% emission reduction target. The 2030 targets are a continuation of the earlier targets for the year 2020 in the EU. The GHG emissions reduction target of 40% by 2030 (compared to 1990) was issued as the EU's commitment towards the Paris Agreement on climate change. As a result of the agreement, efforts are made to limit global warming to 1.5°. However, the current commitments of all nations will result in further growth of GHG emissions and much higher warming than the Paris targets.

The aim of the Special Issue is, as the title explains, to identify a pathway to renewable energy promotion for achieving low-carbon energy networks, and the scope includes:

Renewable energy systems: solar energy; wind energy; marine energy; ocean thermal; geothermal; biomass; nuclear energy; hydroelectricity;

Energy systems: electricity network; district heating network; district cooling network;

Waste heat: synthetic fuel excess heat; bio-refinery excess heat; industrial waste heat; data center;

Energy storage: thermal energy storage (sensible heat; latent heat; seasonal energy storage); electricity storage (hydrogen fuel cell, battery, CAES, gravity energy storage);

Power to X: power to liquid; power to gas;

Heat pumps: compression cycles; absorption systems.

The deadline for manuscript submission is *28 Febuary 2021*, and papers may be submitted immediately or at any point until the deadline. For more details, please visit the website:

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability

The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs).

Please let us know if you wish to accept the present invitation. We sincerely hope that you will be able to contribute to the coming project and would be pleased to provide additional information if needed for your acceptance of the invitation.

Thank you. We look forward to hearing from you.

Dr. Ali Khosravi
Dr. Mohammad Malekan
Dr. Juan Jose Garcia Pabon
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 systems
  • district heating network
  • energy systems
  • waste heat
  • energy storage
  • power to X
  • heat pump

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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22 pages, 1933 KiB  
Article
Determinants of Electricity Consumption and Volatility-Driven Innovative Roadmaps to One Hundred Percent Renewables for Top Consuming Nations in Africa
by Mark Agyei-Sakyi, Yunfei Shao, Oppong Amos and Armah Marymargaret
Sustainability 2021, 13(11), 6239; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13116239 - 1 Jun 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2536
Abstract
The determinants of providing affordable electricity for all in top energy-consuming African countries vary and are in line with the percentage of the current population with access to electricity and volatility in a country’s electric power system, but there is rare evidence of [...] Read more.
The determinants of providing affordable electricity for all in top energy-consuming African countries vary and are in line with the percentage of the current population with access to electricity and volatility in a country’s electric power system, but there is rare evidence of such research. This study categorizes Egypt–Algeria as a panel of countries with 100% access to electricity, and Nigeria–South Africa as otherwise, to investigate the causal relationship between domestic electricity demand, renewable electricity generation, population, and GDP. The study proposed and implemented a novel machine learning model for viable and volatility-driven pathways for renewable electric power transition up to 2030. Results from Pedroni cointegration analysis suggest no evidence of long-run relationships among the variables. Nonetheless, there exists a short-run unidirectional causal relationship from GDP to electricity consumption for Nigeria–South Africa; all except Egypt can achieve 100% access to green electricity. The implication is that, through radical renewable electricity generation innovations, countries can achieve renewable-dominated electric power systems despite expected disruptions from the coronavirus pandemic. For sustainable energy planning, countries aiming to achieve 100% renewables is possible due to the radical transition pathways since it takes into account the volatility. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue A Pathway to Renewable Energy Promotion for Achieving Low-Carbon Energy Networks: Electricity, District Heating and District Cooling Networks)
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17 pages, 7573 KiB  
Article
Dynamic Model of a Transcritical CO2 Heat Pump for Residential Water Heating
by Hélio A. G. Diniz, Tiago F. Paulino, Juan J. G. Pabon, Antônio A. T. Maia and Raphael N. Oliveira
Sustainability 2021, 13(6), 3464; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13063464 - 21 Mar 2021
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 2549
Abstract
This paper presents a distributed mathematical model for a carbon dioxide direct expansion solar-assisted heat pump used to heat bath water. The main components are a gas cooler, a needle valve, an evaporator/collector, and a compressor. To develop the heat exchange models, mass, [...] Read more.
This paper presents a distributed mathematical model for a carbon dioxide direct expansion solar-assisted heat pump used to heat bath water. The main components are a gas cooler, a needle valve, an evaporator/collector, and a compressor. To develop the heat exchange models, mass, energy, and momentum balances were used. The model was validated for transient as well as steady state conditions using experimental data. A reasonably good agreement was observed between the predicted temperatures and experimental data. The simulations showed that the time step required to demonstrate the behavior of the heat pump in the transient regime is greater than the time step required for the steady state. The results obtained with the mathematical model revealed that a reduction in the water mass flow rate results in an increase in the water outlet temperature. In addition, when the carbon dioxide mass flow rate is reduced, the compressor inlet and outlet temperatures increase as well as the water outlet temperature. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue A Pathway to Renewable Energy Promotion for Achieving Low-Carbon Energy Networks: Electricity, District Heating and District Cooling Networks)
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14 pages, 1207 KiB  
Article
Power Generation Optimization of the Combined Cycle Power-Plant System Comprising Turbo Expander Generator and Trigen in Conjunction with the Reinforcement Learning Technique
by Hyoung Tae Kim, Gen Soo Song and Sangwook Han
Sustainability 2020, 12(20), 8379; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12208379 - 12 Oct 2020
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2403
Abstract
In this paper, a method that utilizes the reinforcement learning (RL) technique is proposed to establish an optimal operation plan to obtain maximum power output from a trigen generator. Trigen is a type of combined heat and power system (CHP) that provides chilling, [...] Read more.
In this paper, a method that utilizes the reinforcement learning (RL) technique is proposed to establish an optimal operation plan to obtain maximum power output from a trigen generator. Trigen is a type of combined heat and power system (CHP) that provides chilling, heating, and power generation, and the turbo expander generator (TEG) is a generator that uses the decompression energy of gas to generate electricity. If the two are combined to form a power source, a power generation system with higher efficiency can be created. However, it is very difficult to control the heat and power generation amount of TEG and trigen according to the flow rate of natural gas that changes every moment. Accordingly, a method is proposed to utilize the RL technique to determine the operation process to attain an even higher efficiency. When the TEG and trigen are configured using the RL technique, the power output can be maximized, and the power output variability can be reduced to obtain high-quality power. When using the RL technique, it was confirmed that the overall efficiency was improved by an additional 3%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue A Pathway to Renewable Energy Promotion for Achieving Low-Carbon Energy Networks: Electricity, District Heating and District Cooling Networks)
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Review

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18 pages, 4279 KiB  
Review
Large-Scale Geothermal Collector Systems for 5th Generation District Heating and Cooling Networks
by Robin Zeh, Björn Ohlsen, David Philipp, David Bertermann, Tim Kotz, Nikola Jocić and Volker Stockinger
Sustainability 2021, 13(11), 6035; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13116035 - 27 May 2021
Cited by 35 | Viewed by 5345
Abstract
Low temperature district heating and cooling networks (5GDHC) in combination with very shallow geothermal energy potentials enable the complete renewable heating and cooling supply of settlements up to entire city districts. With the help of 5GDHC, heating and cooling can be distributed at [...] Read more.
Low temperature district heating and cooling networks (5GDHC) in combination with very shallow geothermal energy potentials enable the complete renewable heating and cooling supply of settlements up to entire city districts. With the help of 5GDHC, heating and cooling can be distributed at a low temperature level with almost no distribution losses and made useable to consumers via decentralized heat pumps (HP). Numerous renewable heat sources, from wastewater heat exchangers and low-temperature industrial waste heat to borehole heat exchangers and large-scale geothermal collector systems (LSC), can be used for these networks. The use of large-scale geothermal collector systems also offers the opportunity to shift heating and cooling loads seasonally, contributing to flexibility in the heating network. In addition, the soil can be cooled below freezing point due to the strong regeneration caused by the solar irradiation. Multilayer geothermal collector systems can be used to deliberately generate excessive cooling of individual areas in order to provide cooling energy for residential buildings, office complexes or industrial applications. Planning these systems requires expertise and understanding regarding the interaction of these technologies in the overall system. This paper provides a summary of experience in planning 5GDHC with large-scale geothermal collector systems as well as other renewable heat sources. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue A Pathway to Renewable Energy Promotion for Achieving Low-Carbon Energy Networks: Electricity, District Heating and District Cooling Networks)
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21 pages, 4939 KiB  
Review
A Review of Recent Research on the Use of R1234yf as an Environmentally Friendly Fluid in the Organic Rankine Cycle
by Juan J. García-Pabón, Dario Méndez-Méndez, Juan M. Belman-Flores, Juan M. Barroso-Maldonado and Ali Khosravi
Sustainability 2021, 13(11), 5864; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13115864 - 23 May 2021
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 3693
Abstract
ORC technology is one of the most promising technologies for the use of residual energy in the generation of electrical energy, offering simple and environmentally friendly alternatives. In this field, the selection of working fluids plays an important role in the operation of [...] Read more.
ORC technology is one of the most promising technologies for the use of residual energy in the generation of electrical energy, offering simple and environmentally friendly alternatives. In this field, the selection of working fluids plays an important role in the operation of the cycle, whether in terms of the energy efficiency or the minimization of environmental impacts. Therefore, in this paper, a comprehensive review is presented on the use of R1234yf refrigerant and its mixtures as working fluids in ORC systems. These fluids are used in low- and medium-temperature applications for the use of residual energy generated from solar energy, geothermal energy, and internal combustion engines. It was concluded that R1234yf and its mixtures are competitive as compared with conventional refrigerants used in ORC. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue A Pathway to Renewable Energy Promotion for Achieving Low-Carbon Energy Networks: Electricity, District Heating and District Cooling Networks)
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