Smart cooling systems for the urban environment. Using renewable technologies to face the urban climate change Dionysia Kolokotsa Energy Management in the Built Environment Laboratory, Technical University of Crete Kounoupidiana, Office: K2.114, GR 73100 Chania, Greece article info Article history: Received 19 October 2016 Received in revised form 28 November 2016 Accepted 4 December 2016 Available online xxxx Keywords: Renewable energy Urban environment Cooling demand Smart grids Demand response abstract Urban heat island and global warming increase the urban ambient temperature. Increased temperatures have a tremendous effect on the energy demand for cooling, with a great impact on peak and total elec- tricity demand. Renewable technologies in the urban environment have been widely regarded as an increasingly important solution to deal with the climate change challenges and energy security. Significant effort is performed in the integration of photovoltaic panels (PV) and micro turbines in the urban context showing a substantial reduction in CO 2 emissions. At the same time attention is drawn to an often-overlooked aspect regarding renewable energy technologies, in that despite having low operating costs their overall benefits are often not well understood and consequently are often evaluated as being less profitable than fossil fuel alternatives, even though they are future proof about energy cost. The aim of the present paper is to describe the role of renewable energy technologies and zero carbon technologies in covering the future increased energy demand for cooling. The integration of photovoltaics in the urban environment through PV facades, pavements, and shading devices are discussed. The role of Information and Computer Technology and smart grids in the efficient management of renewables in urban scale is discussed. The role of smart metering, users ‘integration and demand response capabilities for future zero energy urban neighborhoods is revealed. Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The request for energy and energy-related services, to meet social and economic development and improve human wellbeing and health, is constantly increasing. It is well recognized that soci- eties require energy facilities to meet human needs such as space comfort, lighting, cooking, mobility, and communication as well as to serve the various productive processes (Edenhofer et al., 2012). Moreover the significant changes in climate variables that are anticipated and already experienced in the 21st century, as well as the observed ongoing extreme weather and climate events, signifies that adaptation and mitigation to climate change will be a key issue for the urban areas in the near future (‘‘ADAPTATION ACTION PLAN (AAP) the Executive Summary University of Catania,” 2011, Müller et al., 2014; Prutsch et al., 2010). The extent of future climate change depends on some variables including the pace of greenhouse gas emissions, temperature increase rates, and the response of ecosystems to the changing cli- mate. In this framework, all cities face economic, social, energy & environmental challenges each one of them being interrelated with the definite increase in urban temperatures which leads to a signif- icant increase in the cooling demand. On the other hand, the world’s population is growing at unprecedented rates, impacting significantly on the nature of our urban and natural environments. By 2050 we will be nine billion people on the planet, of which 70% will be living in urban areas. That is the reason why Peirce et al. (2008) have rightly called the twenty-first century, the ‘Century of the City.’ Nevertheless, the technologies that can make the difference in the urban thermal environment are well documented (Akbari et al., 1997; Akbari and Touchaei, 2013; Santamouris, 2014). The use of cool materials for the urban environment, able to amortize, dissipate and reflect heat and solar radiation, are already in the market and continuously evolving. The existence of the European Cool Roofs Council, the Cool Roofs Rating Council as well as the announcement of the foundation of the Asian Cool Roofs Council proves that there is a high and global market interest. Green infras- tructure, green roofs, and green facades is another growing market with a significant potential in contributing to the urban cool island effect (Oliveira et al., 2011; Skoulika et al., 2014). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2016.12.004 0038-092X/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. E-mail address: dkolokotsa@enveng.tuc.gr Solar Energy xxx (2017) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Solar Energy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/solener Please cite this article in press as: Kolokotsa, D. Smart cooling systems for the urban environment. Using renewable technologies to face the urban climate change. Sol. Energy (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2016.12.004