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Energy Efficient and Smart Cities 2019

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A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "A: Sustainable Energy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 April 2019) | Viewed by 28493

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Dr. Vicky Albert-Seifried

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Smart Cities Group, Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, Heidenhofstr. 2, 79110 Freiburg, Germany
Interests: integrated modeling and optimization of energy systems; electricity and heat coupling; assessment of renewable energy potential; applications of renewable technologies and building energy efficiency
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

“Energy Efficient and Smart Cities 2019” is a continuation of the previous and successful Special Issue “Energy Efficient and Smart Cities”.

There is a worldwide trend towards Smart Cities, and many governments have set goals to ‘smartify’ urban infrastructures and services in order to make cities more efficient and responsive to the needs of the people, business and the environment. In addition, many cities are committed to substantial reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in order to mitigate climate change. These endeavors are expected to drive significant transformation in cities in the coming decades.

In this Special Issue, we seek to bring together latest research that aims to make cities smarter and more sustainable through the adoption of novel concepts or use of innovative technologies in the building, energy and transportation sectors. We are looking for contributions that address challenges at the city district level and which demonstrate new approaches for increasing energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We accept both conceptual and empirical studies with sound methodologies (computer modeling, data analytics, laboratory simulation, field campaigns, etc.). Works that are potentially transferrable to different cities are particularly welcome. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Tools to support low-carbon and clean energy strategies
Development of sustainable energy system transformation pathway
Distributed energy systems
Smart/Sustainable transportation
Energy storage
Energy sectors coupling

Dr. Vicky Cheng
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. 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.

Keywords

Smart cities
Sustainable energy systems
Sustainable transportation
Clean energy technologies
Low carbon strategies
Energy efficiency

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 236 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Business Model Changes in District Heating: The Impact of the Technology Shift from the Third to the Fourth Generation

by Kristina Lygnerud

Energies 2019, 12(9), 1778; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12091778 - 10 May 2019

Cited by 19 | Viewed by 3015

Abstract

This paper addresses the implications on the business model of district heating companies of the technology shift targeting lower temperatures in the distribution network. Lower temperatures are valuable, since heat supply to low-energy buildings with low grid losses is facilitated. In addition, low-temperature heat sources can be integrated into an efficient energy system, improving the environmental performance of the industry. This technology shift opens a window of opportunity to update the business logic in the sector, since the lower temperatures allow a diversification of the value proposed to customers and a closer, long-term customer relationship. The extent to which the business model is impacted by the shift is not known. Thus, six cases of low temperature implementation from five European countries have been identified. Interviews with the project managers of the implementations show that the six cases made limited change to the primary business model when making the technological shift. Consequently, there is an unexplored potential for updating the value proposition and the customer relationship. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Efficient and Smart Cities 2019)

26 pages, 3453 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Incidence of Photovoltaics in Cities Based on Indicators of Occupancy and Urban Sustainability

by Antonio Barragán-Escandón, Esteban Zalamea-León and Julio Terrados-Cepeda

Energies 2019, 12(5), 810; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12050810 - 28 Feb 2019

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 3076

Abstract

Previous research has assessed the potential of solar energy against possible demand; however, the sustainability issues associated with the use of large-scale photovoltaic deployment in urban areas have not been jointly established. In this paper, the impact of photovoltaic energy in the total urban energy mix is estimated using a series of indicators that consider the economic, environmental and social dimensions. These indicators have been previously applied at the country level; the main contribution of this research is applying them at the urban level to the city of Cuenca, Ecuador. Cuenca is close to the equatorial line and at a high altitude, enabling this area to reach the maximum self-supply index because of the high irradiation levels and reduced demand. The solar potential was estimated using a simple methodology that applies several indexes that were proven reliable in a local context considering this particular sun path. The results demonstrate that the solar potential can meet the electric power demand of this city, and only the indicator related to employment is positive and substantially affected. The indicators related to the price of energy, emissions and fossil fuel dependency do not change significantly, unless a fuel-to-electricity transport system conversions take place. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Efficient and Smart Cities 2019)

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15 pages, 2392 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Comparison of Three Methods for Constructing Real Driving Cycles

by José Ignacio Huertas, Luis Felipe Quirama, Michael Giraldo and Jenny Díaz

Energies 2019, 12(4), 665; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12040665 - 19 Feb 2019

Cited by 29 | Viewed by 3232

Abstract

This work compares the Micro-trips (MT), Markov chains–Monte Carlo (MCMC) and Fuel-based (FB) methods in their ability of constructing driving cycles (DC) that: (i) describe the real driving patterns of a given region and (ii) reproduce the real fuel consumption and emissions exhibited by the vehicles in that region. To that end, we selected four regions and monitored simultaneously the speed, fuel consumption and emissions of CO₂, CO and NO_x from a fleet of 15 buses of the same technology during eight months of normal operation. The driving patterns exhibited by drivers in each region were described in terms of 23 characteristic parameters (CPs) such as average speed and average positive kinetic energy. Then, for each region, we constructed their DC using the MT method and evaluated how close it describes the observed driving pattern in each region. We repeated the process using the MCMC and FB methods. Given the stochastic nature of MT and MCMC methods, the DCs obtained changed every time the methods were applied. Hence, we repeated the process of constructing the DCs up to 1000 times and reported their average relative differences and dispersion. We observed that the FB method exhibited the best performance producing DCs that describe the observed driving patterns. In all the regions considered in this study, the DCs produced by this method showed average relative differences smaller than 20% for all the CPs considered. A similar performance was observed for the case of fuel consumption and emission of pollutants. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Efficient and Smart Cities 2019)

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13 pages, 1270 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Driving Cycles Based on Fuel Consumption

by José I. Huertas, Michael Giraldo, Luis F. Quirama and Jenny Díaz

Energies 2018, 11(11), 3064; https://doi.org/10.3390/en11113064 - 07 Nov 2018

Cited by 34 | Viewed by 3730

Abstract

Type-approval driving cycles currently available, such as the Federal Test Procedure (FTP) and the Worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test Cycle (WLTC), cannot be used to estimate real fuel consumption nor emissions from vehicles in a region of interest because they do not describe its local driving pattern. We defined a driving cycle (DC) as the time series of speeds that when reproduced by a vehicle, the resulting fuel consumption and emissions are similar to the average fuel consumption and emissions of all vehicles of the same technology driven in that region. We also declared that the driving pattern can be described by a set of characteristic parameters (CPs) such as mean speed, positive kinetic energy and percentage of idling time. Then, we proposed a method to construct those local DC that use fuel consumption as criterion. We hypothesized that by using this criterion, the resulting DC describes, implicitly, the driving pattern in that region. Aiming to demonstrate this hypothesis, we monitored the location, speed, altitude, and fuel consumption of a fleet of 15 vehicles of similar technology, during 8 months of normal operation, in four regions with diverse topography, traveling on roads with diverse level of service. In every region, we considered 1000 instances of samples made of m trips, where m varied from 4 to 40. We found that the CPs of the local driving cycle constructed using the fuel-based method exhibit small relative differences (<15%) with respect to the CPs that describe the driving patterns in that region. This result demonstrates the hypothesis that using the fuel based method the resulting local DC exhibits CPs similar to the CPs that describe the driving pattern of the region under study. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Efficient and Smart Cities 2019)

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Review

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22 pages, 2845 KiB

Open AccessReview

A Review of Roofing Methods: Construction Features, Heat Reduction, Payback Period and Climatic Responsiveness

by Majed Abuseif and Zhonghua Gou

Energies 2018, 11(11), 3196; https://doi.org/10.3390/en11113196 - 18 Nov 2018

Cited by 43 | Viewed by 14729

Abstract

The roofs of buildings play an essential role in energy efficiency because a significant amount of solar radiation is absorbed by roofs in hot weather and a significant amount of heat is lost through roofs in cold weather. This paper is a systematic literature review about roofing methods for flat roofs. Ten roofing methods are reviewed in this paper. They are concrete roof, cool roof, insulated roof, roof garden, photovoltaic panels’ roof, biosolar roof, double-skin roof, roof ponds, skylight roof, and wind catcher. The review covers each roof’s main features, heat flux reductions, payback periods, and the appropriate climate for its implementation. Furthermore, the basic principles for selecting appropriate roofing methods are discussed and future studies for integrating these roofing methods are suggested. Some of these methods can eliminate the need of installing HVAC (Heating Ventilation and Air-conditioning) systems and others can achieve a high percentage of heat reduction if they are the right choice and they are implemented in the right circumstances. An incorrect selection could result in mild to severe energy penalties. The review contributes to the increasing knowledge about sustainable roofing and helps designers to increase building energy efficiency by selecting the appropriate roofing method. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Efficient and Smart Cities 2019)

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