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AbstractSince the beginning of the 21st century, straw-bale buildings are reappearing in the world; however, their thermal performances were not thoroughly investigated up to now. The purpose of this study is to analyze thermal behavior and energy performance of a straw-bale building in Switzerland. Using Pleiades+Comfie Software, building designs have been studied to understand the best way to mitigate overheating risks due to the low heat capacity of straw. Thermal-dynamic results and Life Cycle Assessment conclude that straw bale buildings can be a sustainable alternative in the energy evolution of building construction, due to its low embodied energy and excellent thermal performance.

The urban energy infrastructure is facing a rising number of challenges due to climate change and rapid urbanization. In particular, the link between urban morphology and energy systems has become increasingly crucial as cities continue to expand and become more densely populated. Achieving climate neutrality adds another layer of complexity, highlighting the need to address this relationship to develop effective strategies for sustainable urban energy infrastructure. The occurrence of extreme climate events can also trigger cascading failures in the system components, leading to long-lasting blackouts. This review paper thoroughly explores the challenges of incorporating urban morphology into energy system models through a comprehensive literature review and proposes a new framework to enhance the resilience of interconnected systems. The review emphasizes the need for integrated models to provide deeper insights into urban energy systems design and operation and addresses the cascading failures, interconnectivity, and compound impacts of climate change and urbanization on energy systems. It also explores emerging challenges and opportunities, including the requirement for high-quality data, utilization of big data, and integration of advanced technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning in urban energy systems. The proposed framework integrates urban morphology classification, mesoscale and microscale climate data, and a design and operation process to consider the influence of urban morphology, climate variability, and extreme events. Given the prevalence of extreme climate events and the need for climate-resilient strategies, the study underscores the significance of improving energy system models to accommodate future climate variations while recognizing the interconnectivity within urban infrastructure.

Climate induced extreme weather events and weather variations will affect both the demand of energy and the resilience of energy supply systems. The specific potential impact of extreme events on energy systems has been difficult to quantify due to the unpredictability of future weather events. Here we develop a stochastic-robust optimization method to consider both low impact variations and extreme events. Applications of the method to 30 cities in Sweden, by considering 13 climate change scenarios, reveal that uncertainties in renewable energy potential and demand can lead to a significant performance gap (up to 34% for grid integration) brought by future climate variations and a drop in power supply reliability (up to 16%) due to extreme weather events. Appropriate quantification of the climate change impacts will ensure robust operation of the energy systems and enable renewable energy penetration above 30% for a majority of the cities.

Dense urban morphologies further amplify extreme climate events due to the urban heat island phenomenon, rendering cities more vulnerable to extreme climate events. Here we develop a modelling framework using multi-scale climate and energy system models to assess the compound impact of future climate variations and urban densification on renewable energy integration for 18 European cities. We observe a marked change in wind speed and temperature due to the aforementioned compound impact, resulting in a notable increase in both peak and annual energy demand. Therefore, an additional cost of 20-60% will be needed during the energy transition (without technology innovation in building) to guarantee climate resilience. Failure to consider extreme climate events will lower power supply reliability by up to 30%. Energy infrastructure in dense urban areas of southern Europe is more vulnerable to the compound impact, necessitating flexibility improvements at the design phase when improving renewable penetration levels. Understanding the impact of future climate variations and urban densification is key to planning renewable energy integration. By developing a multi-scale spatio-temporal modelling framework, Perera et al. reveal changes in wind speed and temperature across European cities.