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This 38th volume of the International Journal of Sustainable Energy Planning and Management presents some of the newest work within the energy planning, energy systems analyses and district heating area. Articles focus on multi objective optimisation for a community in the Alps, carbon neutrality in Estonia, the prospects of heat pumps combined with thermal energy storage in maximising self-consumption from a photovoltaic field and methods for assessing district heating options. Other works focus on gamification tools for assessing energy efficiency measures, country analyses of economic and environmental indicators, the adaption of alternative fuel vehicles, and the use of waste heat sources for district heating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This 34th volume of the International Journal of Sustainable Energy Planning and Management includes papers from the 2021 conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environmental Systems (SDEWES) held October 10-15, 2021, in Dubrovnik, Croatia as well as the 7th International Conference on Smart Energy Systems held September 21-22 in Copenhagen, Denmark and two normal papers. A focus area of this issue is district heating and district cooling systems, with articles addressing resources for district heating and cooling systems, impacts of having individual district heating metres for consumers and approaches to analysing district heating systems. Another focus area is stakeholder involvement where two groups of researchers focus on stakeholders from an energy island perspective as well as from a positive energy district perspective. Both groups note the importance of factoring in stakeholders when devising transition plans. Plans for increasing the penetration of renewable energy sources for the Estonian, Latvia and Lithuanian systems are analysed using the Backbone model, finding modest increases in system costs. Lastly, an article sets up an indicator system for assessing environmental performance of European Union member states ranking, e.g., Estonian, Latvia and Lithuanian as moderate (Estonia and Latvia) to weak (Lithuania) in terms of sustainable energy performance score, based on 2019 data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This editorial introduces the content of selected papers from the 2nd International Conference on Smart Energy Systems and 4th Generation District Heating. All of the papers elaborate on or otherwise contribute to the theoretical scientific understanding on how we can design and implement a suitable and least-cost transformation into a sustainable energy future with a focus on the important role of district heating and cooling technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This editorial gives an introduction to the important relationship between Smart Energy Systems and 4th Generation District Heating and presents a number of selected papers from the 1st International Conference on the topic. All of the papers elaborate on or otherwise contribute to the theoretical scientific understanding on how we can design and implement a suitable and least-cost transformation into a sustainable energy future. The concept of Smart Energy Systems emphasizes the importance of being coherent and cross-sectoral when the best solutions are to be found and how this also calls for the active inclusion of the heating and cooling sectors. The concept of 4th Generation District Heating emphasizes that district heating and cooling are both important elements but also technologies that have to be developed further into a 4th generation version to be able to fulfil their roles in future sustainable energy systems. The conclusion is that further development of such theoretical scientific understanding is essential for the implementation of political goals related to future sustainable energy solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the 2015 Paris Agreement and other agreements which have been signed after, sustainable energy development is becoming the major goal in many countries. EU have set the targets to reduce the annual greenhouse gas emission by 40% in 2030 and 80% for 2050 compared with 1990 levels. For achieving this ambitious energy policy, three major technological changes are available: energy savings on the demand side, efficiency improvements in the energy production, and replacement of fossil fuels by various sources of renewable energy. Also, for realization cited three major technological changes the support of the multi-disciplinary scientific knowledge is needed. Therefore, from the beginning of the 21st century, since 2002, a series of Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems (SDEWES) Conferences were founded. This paper presents an overview of published researches in special issues of leading journals dedicated to the series SDEWES Conferences, including also the papers in current special issue. The focus is on five main fields: (1) energy policy and analysis of smart energy systems; (2) energy savings in the building sector; (3) co/polygeneration - integrated heating, cooling and electricity systems and district heating; (4) biomass for energy; and (5) measurement of energo-environmental sustainability of processes and systems. Researchers are focused on the development of methods, policies and technologies for both efficient production of energy, mainly from renewable sources, and consumption in industry, buildings and transport. Undoubtedly, the researches presented in the papers in this special issue as well as in previous ones, dedicated to SDEWES conferences, will contribute to the promotion of sustainable development and thus to the achievement of the goals of the Paris Agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This short paper introduces the contents of selected papers from the 4th International Conference on Smart Energy Systems and 4th Generation District Heating – SES4DH. All of the papers elaborate on or contribute to the theoretical scientific understanding on how we can design and implement a suitable and least-cost transformation into a sustainable energy future with a focus on the important role of district heating and cooling technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper provides a perspective on the development of future district heating systems and technologies and their role in future smart energy systems. The reviewed papers elaborate on or otherwise contribute to the theoretical scientific understanding of how we can design and implement a suitable and least-cost transformation into a sustainable energy future. Focus is on the important role of the next generation of district heating and cooling technologies. The status of the scientific contributions demonstrates a high level of understanding of how to deal with the technical aspects. The primary current challenge seems to be the understanding of the implementation of these. Highlights • A transformation into low-temperature becomes essential for future district heating. • High level of understanding of how to deal with the technical aspects. • Primary current challenge seems to be the understanding of the implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A smart municipal energy grid including electricity and heat production infrastructure and electricity demand response has been modeled in HOMER case study with the aim of decreasing total yearly community energy costs. The optimal configurations of used technologies (photovoltaic plants, combined heat and power plants, wind power plants) and sizing, with minimal costs, are presented and compared using three scenarios of average electricity market price 3.5 c€/kWh, 5 c€/kWh and 10 c€/kWh. Smart municipal energy grids will have an important role in future electricity markets, due to their flexibility to utilize excess electricity production from CHP and variable renewable energy sources through heat storage. This flexibility enables the levelized costs of energy within smart municipal energy grids to decrease below electricity market prices even in case of fuel price disturbances. With initial costs in the range 0–3,931,882 €, it has been shown that economical and environmental benefits of smart municipal energy grids are: the internal rate of return in the range 6.87–15.3%, and CO2 emissions in the range from −4,885,203 to 5,165,780 kg/year. The resulting realistic number of hours of operation of combined heat and power plants obtained by simulations is in the range 2410- 7849 h/year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]