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This paper presents the results of the activities related to the subtask “Building and process optimization” of the IEA SHC Task 65. The main topic of this activity was the integration of solar cooling in retrofitted HVAC systems. Based on the current conventional HVAC systems, the integration may present difficulties concerning cold distribution and refrigerants. Cold supply systems can also reduce airflow in air-based systems and enhance thermal comfort in buildings. The best technical actions for specific scenarios were mentioned considering both technical and economic aspects. Unfortunately, not all the analyses that were planned provide useful data. Results show that there are few recent projects that consider the application of solar cooling systems in buildings and most of them are based on simulation. Moreover, not much data about the characteristics of the buildings (envelope, other cooling systems, comfort conditions, etc.) are reported in the studies. This is because many of them are more focused on the plants’ configurations, and the performance of the different plants is in general assessed by testing the prototype in a single room. Despite this, the information provided could be used as baseline cases in order to study the potential energy savings achievable by applying solar cooling systems.

In recent decades, the operational impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) strategies is massively dominating the scientific arena of improving the operation of energy systems and their hybrid integrations. Comprehensively, this paper highlights the firm methodological link of AI strategies with the different defined categories of numerical methods in hypothetically simulating the complex integrated energy systems especially the integration of Renewable Energy Sources (RES). The conducted studies in this paper are related to the bifurcations of the applied numerical simulation methodologies for efficient energy systems and the practical implementations of the optimal operated energy systems considering the integration scenarios of these methodologies with AI strategies. Furthermore, this research reviews innovatively several case studies and practical examples to emphasize the effective contributions of AI strategies in enhancing the computational analysis of numerical simulation methods forming a smart approach for assessing experimental studies that are associated with energy systems. Finally, this paper deeply discusses the concept of integration either in the hybrid controlling strategies combining AI with numerical simulation methods or in combining different energy systems in one hybrid model for reliable operation considering the complexity level.

In South Korea, Renewable Energy Sources (RES) have been increasing with the application of energy policies, such as Feed in Tariff (FIT) and the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). However, a rapid increase in RES supply leads to an uncertain power supply due to the intermittent output of RES. A representative example is the curtailment of Wind Turbines (WT), which frequently occurs in Jeju Island, South Korea. The proportion of RES power on Jeju Island is 67%, and there are cases where WT is curtailed among the operable sections to maintain the balance of power supply and demand. This paper applies Power-to-Gas (P2G) technology to hydrogenate, store, and utilize unused power to solve this problem. In this paper, Aewol-eup in Jeju Island is selected as a target site for case study. An Integrated Energy System (IES) for various energy operations is designed to control RES output. This paper proposes the optimal facility configuration and finally drives the optimal design and operation solution of IES by analyzing the objective functions and focusing on the Independent Power Producer (IPP) perspective.

This article is closely related to the oldest article titled Contribution to Active Thermal Protection Research—Part 1 Analysis of Energy Functions by Parametric Study. It is a continuation of research that focuses on verifying the energy potential and functions of so-called active thermal protection (ATP). As mentioned in the first part, the amount of thermal energy consumed for heating buildings is one of the main parameters that determine their future design, especially the technical equipment. The issue of reducing the consumption of this energy is implemented in various ways, such as passive thermal protection, i.e., by increasing the thermal insulation parameters of the individual materials of the building envelope or by optimizing the operation of the technical equipment of the buildings. On the other hand, there are also methods of active thermal protection that aim to reduce heat leakage through nontransparent parts of the building envelope. This methodology is based on the validation of the results of a parametric study of the dynamic thermal resistance (DTR) and the heat fluxes to the interior and exterior from the ATP for the investigated envelope of the experimental house EB2020 made of aerated concrete blocks, presented in the article “Contribution to the research on active thermal protection—Part 1, Analysis of energy functions by the parametric study”, by long-term experimental measurements. The novelty of the research lies in the involvement of variant-peak heat/cooling sources in combination with RES and in creating a new, original way of operating energy systems with the possibility of changing and combining the operating modes of the ATP. We have verified the operation of the experimental house in the energy functions of thermal barrier, heating/cooling with RES, and without RES and ATP. The energy saving when using RES and ATP is approximately 37%. Based on the synthesis and induction of analogous forms of the results of previous research into recommendations for the development of building envelopes with energy-active elements, we present further possible outcomes in the field of ATP, as well as already realized and upcoming prototypes of thermal insulation panels.

To enhance access to efficient and low-carbon public transportation, the city of Alexandria, Egypt, has introduced a fleet of electric buses. Additionally, an ongoing project aims to upgrade and electrify the existing urban railway system, which is expected to alleviate traffic congestion in this densely populated city. The implementation of electric vehicle (EV) parking facilities is also under consideration. This paper investigates the integration of photovoltaic (PV) systems and green hydrogen-powered gas turbines as components of the integrated energy system (IES). An optimal energy management strategy is proposed to maximize the benefits of incorporating renewable energy sources into the urban transportation system (UTS). The proposed energy management algorithm incorporates demand-side management (DSM) for UTS loads and EVs, increasing the complexity of the decision-making process due to the high uncertainty of decision variables. To address this challenge, a modified multi-agent reinforcement learning (MRL) approach is employed, in which uncertainty is incorporated through stochastic environment sampling. Simulation results demonstrate the economic potential of integrating renewable and sustainable energy resources into the IES of the electrified urban transportation system, achieving a 40.2% reduction in the average daily energy consumption cost.

This paper presents an enhanced Unet network (Res-Unet) for the identification of prevalent concrete diseases, namely cracks, spalling, holes, alkaline flooding, and exposed reinforcement. The proposed approach involves constructing a Res-Unet network model by integrating the Unet model with the ResNet50 network. Additionally, the training dataset is augmented using geometric deformation techniques, such as cropping, rotating, and mirroring, applied to the original images depicting common concrete diseases. In this study, a total of 13,200 concrete illness picture datasets were acquired. These datasets were used to train, validate, and test several models, including the Res-Unet model, the original Unet model, the VGG16 + Unet model, the FCN + VGG16 model, and the FCN + ResNet50 model. The findings indicate that the Res-Unet model achieves a mean Intersection over Union of 86.3% and an average pixel accuracy of 98.5%. The improved Res-Unet model ensures the accurate extraction of the whole fracture skeleton and the identification of minor cracks. This study’s findings can be utilized to identify specific damages in concrete in real-world engineering scenarios precisely.

Renewable energy sources (RES) could play an important role in the sustainability of energy systems although at present their contribution is often marginal in countries' energy balances. Since the beginning of the twenty‐first century, the European Union (EU) has officially recognized the need of promoting RES as a priority measure both for reduction of energetic dependence and for environmental protection and sustainable development. In recent years the share of renewable energy systems such as the Combined Heat and Power (CHP) and District Heating (DH) systems has increased permanently [EIA, 2009] due to important investment and promotion policies. Maintaining the balance between supply and demand in energy systems with large quantities of fluctuating renewable energy sources being utilized is a quite complex task. For this reason, the growing increase in penetration of RES must be joined with an optimization of whole energy systems to permit an effective energy saving, otherwise the great effort connected to promotion of those new energy systems will be not effective in order to provide a reduction in dependence on fossil fuel resources and in carbon emission to the atmosphere. In particular, it is shown how penetration of new renewable energies is limited at an upper level by technological considerations and will be more sustainable if an integration of various energy uses (thermal, mobility and electrical) field are considered. The chapter analyses some aspects in connection with the problem of new renewable energy penetration. The Italian scenario is considered as a meaningful reference due to characteristic size and complexity. The various energy scenarios are evaluated with the aid of multi‐purpose software taking into account the interconnections between different energetic uses.