With ICT pervading everyday objects and infrastructures, the ‘Future Internet’ is envisioned to leap towards a radical transformation from how we know it today (a mere communication highway) into a vast hybrid network seamlessly integrating knowledge, people and machines as techno-social ecosystems…
With ICT pervading everyday objects and infrastructures, the ‘Future Internet’ is envisioned to leap towards a radical transformation from how we know it today (a mere communication highway) into a vast hybrid network seamlessly integrating knowledge, people and machines as techno-social ecosystems whose behaviour transcends the boundaries of today’s engineering science. From self-reconfiguring manufacturing plants and self-stabilizing energy grids to self-deploying emergency taskforces – such ecosystems relying on a myriad of mobile devices, software agents and human users will be spontaneously deployed through eNetworks on the sole basis of local rules and peer-to-peer communication. This trend is driving a much needed radical transformation of the energy sector metamorphosed into a pervasively adaptive ecosystem of hybrid energy providers in which local microgrids of prosumers (producers and consumers) will interact with large power providers in a coopetition-driven manner. Several technologies are currently racing to production to meet this dream, from ‘smart dust’ to hybrid networks capable to control the emergence of dependable and reliable green and energy-efficient ecosystems – which we generically term the ‘energy web’ – calling for major paradigm shifts highly disruptive of the ways the energy sector functions today. The EAI Endorsed Transactions on the Energy Web are positioned at the forefront of these efforts as a forum for the most forward looking frontier research undertaken by the international scientific community. We will publish original works reporting on prominent advances that challenge traditional thinking to find solutions to the ongoing energy problems spanning from blackouts to green and alternative energy.