The accelerating deployment of renewable energy—wind, solar, hydropower, and emerging technologies—is reshaping electricity systems worldwide. However, the integration of variable renewables into grids, markets, and existing infrastructure remains a central challenge, requiring advances in forecasting, storage, demand-side flexibility, and sector coupling. At the same time, renewable energy systems do not operate in isolation. They compete with, and can synergistically support, other critical resource systems: food production, water availability, land use, and material supply chains. This approach recognises that sustainable energy transitions must be co-optimised with food security, water resilience, land use justice, and circular material flows.

This Themed Collection invites interdisciplinary research on renewable energy integration and nexus thinking. We welcome contributions that address technical, economic, policy, and social dimensions, with particular interest in system coupling, tradeoff analysis, and multi-sector pathways to net-zero.

Topics covered by this Themed Collection include, but are not limited to:

• Renewable energy grid integration: forecasting, storage, demand response, and sector coupling
• Energy–food nexus: renewable-powered agriculture, aquaponics, and vertical farming
• Energy–water nexus: desalination, irrigation, and hydropower under climate variability
• Energy–land nexus: land use competition, agrivoltaics, and spatial planning for renewables
• Energy–materials nexus: critical minerals, circular economy, and supply chain resilience
• Techno-economic assessment of hybrid renewable energy systems
• Just transitions: community engagement, land use justice, and energy inequalities
• Green hydrogen, power-to-X, and cross-sectoral decarbonisation pathways
• Data-driven modelling and decision informatics for nexus challenges
• Floating solar, offshore wind, and multi-use marine renewable systems
• Policy, governance, and financing for integrated energy-nets solutions

Submission deadline: 31 July 2027

Lead Editor

George Xydis, University of the Peloponnese, Greece; Aarhus University, Denmark, Co-EiC of Cambridge Prisms: Energy Transitions.