Sustainable Energy Planning: Flexibility, Governance and Resource Constraints

Volume 51 of the International Journal of Sustainable Energy Planning and Management brings together six contributions addressing technical, economic, institutional and environmental challenges in sustainable energy transitions. The studies examine the provision of ancillary services through district heating technologies in Sweden, governance barriers to district heating decarbonisation in the Danube Region, and the role of household waste segregation in biogas-based energy systems in Indonesia. Two contributions focus on solar energy development in India, exploring the impacts of long-term climate variability on photovoltaic performance and the physical feasibility of solar-dominant net-zero pathways under land and critical mineral constraints. A further study evaluates the techno-economic and environmental performance of solar water heating in Fiji's hospitality sector. Collectively, these contributions highlight the importance of integrating operational flexibility, institutional capacity, resource availability, climate resilience and context-specific economic conditions into sustainable energy planning.