Topical Collection "Editorial Board Members’ Collection Series: Energy Transitions, Energy Consumption, and Sustainable Economic Growth"

Dear Colleagues,

Energy is considered to be the lifeline of an economy. Energy is probably the most significant factor in the economic growth of a country. Sustainability requires that economic growth be compatible with the socioeconomic and environmental goals that are necessary for long-term development and, indeed, the survival of civilisation. Thus, given the severity of the environmental danger posed by climate change and global warming, which is due largely to the combustion of fossil fuels, economies should consider an energy transition with regard to how they produce and consume energy sources. In the past, natural gas, petroleum, and coal were considered the driving force of economic growth, since they power industrial processes, residential heating and transportation, and produce electricity. As nations develop and improve their populations’ living standards, energy demand continues to increase swiftly. Today, renewable energy has become more critical because non-renewable energy has more negative impacts on the environment than alternative energies. Therefore, the first challenge is to see how the use of renewable sources of energy (such as wind, solar, biomass, waste, hydro, and geothermal) can promote sustainable prosperity. The second challenge arises from the observation that economic growth is generally tightly coupled to physical growth—that is, growth in the use of energy, materials and land—and the resulting environmental impacts, some of which are now exceeding planetary boundaries. Therefore, either physical growth must be decoupled from economic growth or a path to sustainable prosperity must be found that does not require further economic growth, at least in rich countries. The proposed call for papers aims to address these issues by inviting the submission of papers that examine the role of energy transitions and renewable energy usage in the promotion of sustainable prosperity. Both theoretical and empirical papers of high quality are invited. The Topical Collection aims to provide a platform for scientists, industry representatives, decision-makers, the public, and end-users to share their most recent developments and innovations in the renewable energy sector, regarding its role in either sustainable economic growth or sustainable prosperity without further growth, while recognising the challenges of both these scenarios. The Topical Collection aims to promote interdisciplinary approaches to these issues.

Prof. Dr. Dimitrios Asteriou
Dr. Mark Diesendorf
Collection 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 collection 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 2200 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.