Forthcoming Special Issues
Photovoltaic Recycling and Carbon-Neutral Manufacturing
To meet the decarbonization goals of the global economy, it is important to ensure a large-scale deployment of renewable energy including photovoltaics (PV). The cumulative installed capacity of PV systems in the world at the end of 2020 was about 775 GWp (DC) and is expected to exceed 1 TWp in 2022 to meet the global decarbonization goals.
There is growing research on life cycle analyses (LCA), end-of-life (EoL) materials recovery, PV recyclability and carbon-neutral PV circular economy. This special issue will collect original papers and reviews to present the state-of-art research on the following topics:
• Life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) analyses for PV technologies- materials and manufacturing. Novel low-emission materials and manufacturing methods.
• Life cycle GHG analyses for PV technologies with grid integration and storage.
• Novel designs and manufacturing processes to reduce material use and increase recyclability.
• Decommissioning risks and recyclability of photovoltaic modules (specifically technologies such as CdTe, Pb-based halide perovskite solar cells).
• Novel low-emission recycling methods for PV modules and systems.
• Design, materials and methods for increasing PV module and system lifetimes.
• End-of-life material recovery strategies to ensure they are not disposed in landfills and can be reused or can be of societal value.
Manuscript submission information:
The journal’s submission platform Editorial Manager:https://www.editorialmanager.com/sej/default1.aspx
will be available for receiving submissions to this Special Issue currently. Please refer to the Guide for Authors to prepare your manuscript and select the article type of "VSI:_PV Circular Economy" when submitting your manuscript online. Both the Guide for Authors and the submission portal could be found on the Journal Homepage here: https://www.elsevier.com/journals/solar-energy/0038-092X/guide-for-authors
Timeline:
Submissions close on 30 December 2023
Learn more about the benefits of publishing in a special issue: https://www.elsevier.com/authors/submit-your-paper/special-issues
Interested in becoming a guest editor? Discover the benefits of guest editing a special issue and the valuable contribution that you can make to your field: https://www.elsevier.com/editors/role-of-an-editor/guest-editors
Digital Twin Technology Applications Toward Reliable, Resilient, and Sustainable Solar Energy
In the last decades, solar plants have highly penetrated the energy networks that making them more vulnerable than before due to the inherent uncertainties associated with solar energies. On the other hand, in modern networks, the distributed system operators (DSO), utilities, and solar energy owners have different operators. Hence, energy management at the different levels may be based on different rules and policies. Since the entire network is physically connected, any change in any sub-owner, especially on the solar side, can affect the network operation from the system-level perspective due to the high level of interconnectivity within the system. This can also affect the reliability, resiliency, and sustainability of the solar-based network as well. To address these challenges, accurate modeling of the solar plant is essential to use both historic and current behavior of solar energies before formal adoption of them.
The Digital Twin technology uses both historic and current behavior using sensors, and data combined with modeling and simulation. For a solar power plant, it allows us to go from reacting to the state of a module, to predicting the performance we need to model. Traditional software models are limited as they don’t take into account factors like precise location, environmental factors, aging of parts, damage history, and individual tolerances of components or processes used in their manufacture. Digital Twins, however, use a combination of sensor data and machine learning to provide individualized algorithms, which are then, able to model actual performance of a module. Morteza, machine learning, enables the Digital twin technology can be used to model history and individual tolerances. Also, sensor data enables the digital twin to model actual operating conditions for the module, creating an intelligent algorithm which keeps improving with time. To this end, the main goal of this special issue is to investigate the applications of digital twin technology to develop reliable, resilient, and sustainable solar-based energy networks.
Guest editors:
1. Dr. Morteza Dabbaghjamanesh, Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), Austin, USA ([email protected])
2. Dr. Zhao Yang Dong, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore ([email protected])
3. Dr. Abdollah Kavousi-Fard, Shiraz University of Technology, Iran ([email protected])
4. Dr. Ramin Sahba, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX ([email protected])
5. Boyu Wang, Tacoma Public Utilities, Seattle, USA ([email protected])
Special issue information:
To this end, the main topics of this special issue, but not limited to:
- Application of Digital Twin in cyber-attack detection/mitigation
- Application of Digital Twin enables blockchain and IoT technologies
- Application of Digital Twin in smart solar-based network energy management
- Digital Twin enable Machine learning for monitoring solar-based networks
- Digital Twin-based anomaly detection of smart solar networks
- Digital Twin for solar-based microgrids and smart grids modeling
- Digital Twin for modeling and forecasting of solar energy
- Digital Twin for solar-based smart grids control
Manuscript submission information:
The journal’s submission platform Editorial Manager: https://www.editorialmanager.com/sej/default1.aspx will be available for receiving submissions to this Special Issue Currently. Please refer to the Guide for Authors to prepare your manuscript and select the article type of "VSI:Solar Digital Twin" when submitting your manuscript online. Both the Guide for Authors and the submission portal could be found on the Journal Homepage here: https://www.elsevier.com/journals/solar-energy/0038-092X/guide-for-authors
Timeline:
- Online submission open: Open Now
- Full paper submission deadline: January 31, 2022
- Final decision notification: March 31, 2023
Learn more about the benefits of publishing in a special issue: https://www.elsevier.com/authors/submit-your-paper/special-issues
Interested in becoming a guest editor? Discover the benefits of guest editing a special issue and the valuable contribution that you can make to your field: https://www.elsevier.com/editors/role-of-an-editor/guest-editors
Building-Integrated Solar Energy
The world is facing enormous pressure towards carbon neutral. As a large energy consumer, the building field is also facing the urgent need of energy saving and CO2 emission reduction. At present, building energy consumption nearly accounts for one third of the global total energy consumption, and according to the International Energy Agency, the energy demand of buildings will grow by 30% in 2040, which will lead to a large amount of CO2 emission if use of renewable energy is not considered..
The energy demand in buildings include heat, cooling and electricity, which can be efficiently fulfilled by clean solar energy technologies. Plenty of solar thermal, PV and hybrid PV/T systems have been integrated with buildings for energy supply. Matching of solar energy supply and building energy consumption, novel technologies, components and installations, as well as aesthetics & applicability & economy , there is a lot to explore on “Building-Integrated Solar Energy”.
This special issue includes the revised selected papers contributing to “Building-Integrated Solar Energy” from the 3rd International Conference for Global Chinese Academia on Energy and Built Environment–CEBE2023. The “CEBE”conference was jointly initiated and organized by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Southwest Jiaotong University, University of Colorado Boulder and University of Hull, aiming to establish a platform to share achievements in clean energy utilization, artificial environment energy efficiency improvement and environmental quality improvement. The conferences were held in Chengdu, China in 2019 and 2021. Over 1,300 Chinese scholars from around the world participated in the last session and over 1000 abstracts and about 600 full-length papers were collected. The 3rd “CEBE” conference is planned to be hosted by Shanghai Jiao Tong University and held on July 28-31, 2023 in Shanghai, China. This special issue is intended to foster the dissemination on Building-Integrated Solar Energy to wider audiences.
Guest editors:
- Prof. Yanjun Dai, Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University;
- Prof. Yanping Yuan, School of Mechanical Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University;
- Prof. Zhiqiang Zhai, Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder;
- Prof. Xudong Zhao, Research Center for Sustainable Energy Technologies, Energy and Environment Institute, University of Hull;
- Dr. Teng Jia, Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University;
Manuscript submission information:
The journal’s submission platform Editorial Manager: https://www.editorialmanager.com/sej/default1.aspx will be available for receiving submissions to this Special Issue from 1 October 2022. Please refer to the Guide for Authors to prepare your manuscript and select the article type of "VSI: BISE" when submitting your manuscript online. Both the Guide for Authors and the submission portal could be found on the Journal Homepage here: https://www.elsevier.com/journals/solar-energy/0038-092X/guide-for-authors
Timeline:
- Submissions open on 1 October 2022
- Submissions close on 30 June 2023
Note: Invited Only
Learn more about the benefits of publishing in a special issue: https://www.elsevier.com/authors/submit-your-paper/special-issues
Interested in becoming a guest editor? Discover the benefits of guest editing a special issue and the valuable contribution that you can make to your field: https://www.elsevier.com/editors/role-of-an-editor/guest-editors
Particle-based Solar Energy Capture and Storage for Concentrated Solar Power
Particle-based solar thermal energy storage (TES) coupled to concentrated solar power (CSP) is an attractive pathway towards operating at elevated temperatures while extending electricity production beyond diurnal periods of on-sun operation. Operation at elevated temperatures necessitates higher solar concentration ratios at MWth-scales that are only possible with power towers and heliostat fields. These elevated temperatures are facilitated by particle-based solar thermal energy storage systems due to effective absorptance of concentrated solar irradiation, chemical inertness, and thermal stability combined with high heat capacities. The operating principles of a TES integrated CSP system are direct or indirect heating of particles entering a solar receiver from cold storage tank via exposure to concentrated solar irradiation, which results in an increase in temperature as sensible heat is stored; transfer to a hot storage tank for use when required; conveyance and integration into a heat exchanger where the particle heat is transferred to a fluid drive a power cycle and produce on-demand electricity; and subsequent storage in a cold tank to complete the cycle.
Numerous advances have been made in particle-based solar TES integrated with CSP to make them less expensive, more efficient, and capable of longer continuous operation. A principal enabler has been extensive research and technology development of subcomponents, including solar receivers, storage tanks, and heat exchangers. The development of these technologies is supported by fundamental work aimed at determining key properties for understanding flows, heat and mass transfer, and particle attrition.
Guest editors:
Professor Peter Loutzenhiser, Georgia Tech;
Professor Renkun Chen, UC San Diego;
Dr. Clifford Ho, Sandia National Laboratories;
Dr. Abraham Shultz, U.S. Department of Energy.
Special issue information:
The aim of this special issue of Solar Energy is to consolidate in the state-of-the-art research in particle-based solar TES into a collection of review and technical articles that are authored by subject matter experts. The relevant topics covered in this special issue are outlined as follows:
- Particle-based solar receiver development
- Particle heat exchanger and storage development
- System integration and analysis of CSP coupled to particle-based solar TES
- Fundamental radiative heat transfer characterization of particles to inform design and development
- Fundament heat transfer and thermodynamic characterization and correlation development of particle beds to inform design and development
- Granular flow characterization at elevated temperatures
- Particle attrition, erosion, and long-term stability analyses
Manuscript submission information:
The journal’s submission platform Editorial Manager:
https://www.editorialmanager.com/sej/default1.aspx
will be available for receiving submissions to this Special Issue from 15 July 2022. Please refer to the Guide for Authors to prepare your manuscript and select the article type of "VSI:Particle-based CSP" when submitting your manuscript online. Both the Guide for Authors and the submission portal could be found on the Journal Homepage here: https://www.elsevier.com/journals/solar-energy/0038-092X/guide-for-authors
Timeline:
Submissions open on 15 July 2022
Submissions close on 30 June 2023
Learn more about the benefits of publishing in a special issue: https://www.elsevier.com/authors/submit-your-paper/special-issues
Interested in becoming a guest editor? Discover the benefits of guest editing a special issue and the valuable contribution that you can make to your field: https://www.elsevier.com/editors/role-of-an-editor/guest-editors