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The global energy crisis has spurred increased investments in energy efficiency and clean energy initiatives; however, the results have fallen short of expected effectiveness. Concurrently, population growth and urbanisation drive a persistent surge in energy demands, especially within the residential sector, significant to overall building energy consumption. Current research focuses on residents’ responses to one-shot investments for energy efficiency or clean sources. The renovation wave, involving a massive number of existing buildings, calls for the mobilisation of huge investments that can be hard to afford in the short run. Sustainable behavioural change is complementarily rising as a key asset for maximising the overall estimated energy saving potential. Despite significant efforts to analyse household energy use and promote behavioural transformations, the literature remains gaping about future users, particularly the younger generation, as future leaders of sustainable development who exhibit a more responsible approach towards climate-related issues but also a strong dependency on digital-based solutions, which may influence energy use patterns and living habits, also impacting relations among peers and overall societal sustainability and energy efficiency. This article proposes a systematic literature review to analyse the variables affecting young people’s energy behaviour at home. The aim is to investigate the engines and gaps between strategies or tools for behaviour change and the expected effects, then find potential methods to address that barrier to identify a more promising approach, encouraging the younger generation to translate towards more sustainable energy behaviours.

The proposed special issue (SI) has invited submissions related to renewable energy, energy storage, power converters and electric drive systems for electrified transportation and smart grid applications [...]

The global challenge of sustainable and affordable wastewater treatment technology looms large as water pollution escalates steadily with the rapid pace of industrialization and population growth. The photocatalytic wastewater treatment is a cutting-edge and environmentally friendly technology that uses photons from light source to degrade and remove organic and inorganic contaminants from water. Thus, utilizing solar energy for photocatalytic wastewater treatment holds great promise as a renewable solution to alleviate pressures on the global water crisis. Employing solar concentrators to intensify sunlight for photocatalysis represents a promising avenue for future applications of a low-cost and rapid sustainable wastewater purification process. This groundbreaking approach will unveil fresh technological avenues for a cost-effective, sustainable, and swift wastewater purification process utilizing sunlight. This review article explores diverse solar concentrating systems and their potential applications in the wastewater treatment process.

It is critical and challenging to develop high performance transition metal phosphides (TMPs) electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) to address fossil energy shortages. Herein, we report the synthesis of Co2P embedded in N-doped porous carbon (Co2P@N-C) via a facile one-step strategy. The obtained catalyst exhibits a lower overpotential of 352 mV for OER at a current density of 10 mA cm−2 and a small Tafel slope of 84.6 mV dec−1, with long-time reliable stability. The excellent electrocatalytic performance of Co2P@N-C can be mainly owed to the synergistic effect between the Co2P and highly conductive N-C substrate, which not only affords rich exposed active sites but also promotes faster charge transfer, thus significantly promoting OER process. This work presents a promising and industrially applicable synthetic strategy for the rational design of high performance nonnoble metal electrocatalysts with enhanced OER performance.

Shading the greenhouses is necessary in summer to reduce the solar radiation load. This however generates a considerable amount of thermal radiation heat load that needs to be removed via cooling systems. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of different shading configurations on the solar and thermal radiation in a greenhouse. Nets at four different locations were employed to shade the roof and side-walls of a polycarbonate, mechanically ventilated greenhouse. The spectral radiative properties of all these plastic materials were measured in short and long wave spectrum bands. The net solar and thermal radiations and air temperature were measured outside and inside two identical shaded and unshaded greenhouses. The results showed that external roof-shading is desirable, as it reduced the generated thermal radiation in the greenhouse by 21% and 15% during the day and night time, respectively and reduced the greenhouse air temperature during the day. The internal shading (roof and side walls) is undesirable, since it drastically increased the generated thermal radiation in the greenhouse by 147% and strongly increased the greenhouse air temperature during the day. Shading the side-walls is not recommended because it significantly reduces the transmitted solar radiation in the morning and afternoon (when the outside irradiance is low) and is useless at around noon when the outside irradiance is extremely high.

Energy storage technology plays a significant role in the pursuit of the high-quality development of the electricity market. Many regions in China have issued policies and regulations of different intensities for promoting the popularization of the energy storage industry. Based on a variety of initial conditions of different regions, this paper explores the evolutionary process of electricity market players considering energy storage technology. The trilateral evolutionary game model is adopted to analyze the strategies of the power plant, the power grid, and the government. After assigning the model according to an actual situation, each equilibrium point corresponds to a real electricity market situation. The results indicate the following: (1) In the process of stabilizing, the role of “Advanced Imitators” leading the strategy of building energy storage changes between the power plant and the power grid. (2) In Eastern, Middle, and Southern China, the power plants and power grids on a greater-than-medium scale will choose to build energy storage without governmental regulations, due to the abundant net profit. (3) In the northeast of China, power plants with a medium-or-lower scale will choose not to build energy storage because of the relatively low on-grid price, and small power grids can make enough profits by operating energy storage facilities. (4) In Northern China, the large power plants and the medium power grids will choose to build energy storage due to the high electricity sale price and the resulting high profit. (5) In Western China, the small power plants and power grids cannot afford to build energy storage due to the low electricity price. The results lead to valuable policy suggestions for the local governments of China in promoting energy storage in the future. To meet the goal of energy storage popularization, regional electricity market plans need relevant policies based on its existing conditions, offering suitable external conditions for adding energy storage.

When the grid voltage is unbalanced, the positive and negative sequence components in the grid voltage cause grid current to be disordered. Under current balance control, proportional integral (PI) closed-loop control will increase the grid currents instantaneously, which affects the safety and reliability of the inverter operation, and PI parameters are difficult to select without the complete system mathematical model. This paper introduces an adaptive dynamic programming (ADP) approach to solve this problem. The best state feedback controller for the system is obtained by driving the ADP by the value iteration ( V I ) algorithm without the need for an accurate mathematical model. In the simulations, the ADP approach can improve the dynamic performance of the system, the current increase can be suppressed when the grid voltage is unbalanced, and the harmonic rate of output currents is reduced.

Coal will continue to be the main energy source in China for the immediate future, although the environmental pollution and ecological impacts of each stage in the full life cycle of coal mining, transportation, and combustion generate large quantities of external costs. The Late Permian coals in southwestern (SW) China usually contain high amounts of fluorine (F), arsenic (As), and ash, which together with high-F clays cause abnormally high levels of endemic fluorosis, As poisoning, and lung cancer in areas where coal is mined and burned. In this paper, we estimate the external costs of the life cycle of coal. The results show that the externalities of coal in SW China are estimated at USD 73.5 billion or 284.3 USD/t, which would have accounted for 6.5 % of the provincial GDP in this area in 2018. The external cost of human health accounts for 87.2% of the total external costs, of which endemic skeletal fluorosis diseases and related lung cancers have the most important impact. Our study provides a more precise estimate of externalities compared with its counterparts in other provinces in China. Therefore, several policy recommendations would be proposed to internalize the external cost.