On the scale of the building, the energy transition implies a democratisation and decentralisation of energy generation and storage, including for example energy producing roofs and facades (BIPV), connected buildings and load sharing (microgrids), V2G and electric mobility, turning your house into a personal “power-bank”-station.

Through building integration, renewable energy generation also becomes visible in the city, which requires their careful design. New technologies, including active facades and learning-based control systems can turn fossil-fuel dependent cities into sustainable and self-regulating systems. Our research addresses holistic, multi-​scale and interdisciplinary approaches for assessing large scale deployment of BIPV taking into account different climatic, socio-​economic and urban conditions.

In a high-density urban environment where land is scarce, renewable energy technologies, such as solar photovoltaics, compete with other important urban functions, such as greenery and farming. In order to create a sustainable and liveable urban environment, it is therefore crucial to utilise space most efficiently for the deployment of solar energy. We develop an optimization model that utilises smart energy management strategies to minimise the amount of space for photovoltaics installation within a larger building community. Those strategies include energy storage via electric and thermal storage battery, energy sharing via power microgrid and district cooling pipeline, and demand-side management via shifting energy demand from the peak hours to the off-peak hours. The computational results of a case study conducted in a building cluster in the campus of the National University of Singapore (NUS) indicate that those smart energy management strategies can potentially reduce the amount of space for solar photovoltaics by up to 28%. The saved space can be used for other urban functions such as greenery and farming.

On the city scale, we need to have strategies in place that allow us to harness all available renewable energy potentials in accordance with existing and future urban functions including housing, industry and commercial areas and open space. Only in consideration of all available resources and their implications can we create planning guidelines that lead to socio-ecologically resilient cities and integrated and diversified energy systems. Our research addresses the renewable energy potentials in cities. We have created a comprehensive analysis of Singapore’s energy potentials and investigated possible implications of renewable energy deployment lifecycles to inform urban design decisions.

Our Energy Potential Maps for Singapore form the basis of new urban design guidelines that maximize the amount of locally sourced energy. These maps have been created in collaboration with the National University of Singapore (NUS).

On a larger scale, renewable energy production currently contributes to a radical transformation of vast landscapes. In Southeast Asia (SEA), for example, solar and wind power as well as bioenergy produced from agricultural waste are operationalised in agriculturally dominant areas. These rapidly expanding practices restructure or replace agricultural businesses and supply chains that support subsistence farming. Our research addresses the various modes in which the energy transition is transforming large territories in SEA and devises ways in which it can take place while fostering sustainable, inclusive and equitable development.