The research paper entitled "European smart cities: The role of zero energy buildings" by Angeliki Kilili, a PhD student at Frederick University and Dr. Paris Fokaidis, Assistant Professor at Frederick University's Polytechnic School, has been for a few weeks now the most cited publication by the Sustainable Cities and Society magazine of the Elsevier publishing house. This is a special distinction for researchers at Frederick University, as this magazine ranks among the top 20 scientific journals in the world in the field of civil engineering and the top 12 in the transport sector worldwide, with an impact factor of 3.1.
The paper presents the potential contribution of zero energy buildings to achieving the European goal of smart cities. An analysis of the evolution of energy-related buildings in the zero energy consumption building model is also being carried out in conjunction with the European strategy for the promotion of smart cities through the European Commission's Energy Technology Plan (SET). Reference is also made to previous work, which shows the contribution of zero consumption in the building sector to achieving the goal of smart cities. The paper concludes with suggestions for technical actions that are required in relation to existing methodologies and practices for energy analysis of buildings to achieve the goal of smart cities.
The Sustainable Energy Research Team of Frederick University is actively engaged in the energy analysis of the structured environment. The team has participated as a coordinator and as a partner since 2012 in 14 research projects and consulting services to the state, with a total budget to the university of over 1 million euros. The team, which at the present stage, besides Dr. Fokaidis, is staffed by 3 doctoral students - researchers and 7 postgraduate students - has also in recent years more than 50 publications in scientific journals and 10 chapters in collective volumes.