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Advances in Photovoltaic Solar Energy II

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "A2: Solar Energy and Photovoltaic Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2024 | Viewed by 2409

Special Issue Editors

Department of Energy, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Torino, Italy
Interests: photovoltaic and wind power systems; power systems analysis; measurements; distributed generation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
SI-UniBas School of Engineering, University of Basilicata, via dell’Ateneo Lucano, 10, 85100 Potenza, Italy
Interests: renewable energy system modeling; PV and PVT power systems; applied energy; plasma physics; CFD and MHD modeling; thermal plasma systems; numerical methods
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is dedicated to photovoltaic (PV) solar energy. The reason for the current and future massive development of PV technology is the abundant amount of solar resource in the world. In particular, the solar energy received by the Earth in a year is more than 1000 times greater than the human energy consumption. Moreover, the increase in the efficiency of the PV modules and their price fall make PV one of the most installed technologies in recent years, with a new word capacity of more than 100 GW in 2020. Therefore, it is essential that the research world focuses its attention on the design, optimal operation, and maintenance of PV plants.

Contributions submitted to this Special Issue should deal with the following topics, as well as other potential topics that are not mentioned here:

  • Innovative design of PV components and systems (e.g., new maximum power point tracking logics);
  • Techniques for automatic fault detection (e.g., thermography and electroluminescence by drones, automatic scan of current–voltage curves);
  • Smart monitoring and maintenance of utility scale PV plants;
  • Techniques to increase local self-sufficiency and self-consumption by PV systems;
  • Methods to support the integration of a significant share of PV generation into the power grids (e.g., coupling with storage systems, active power curtailment, reactive power injection, remote/centralized control, grid reconfigurations);
  • Planning of utility scale PV generation at regional and national levels;
  • Forecasting of PV generation.
  • Modelling and simulation of photovoltaic energy conversion systems
  • Electrical and thermal modeling of a PV cell and of a module
  • Modelling, control, and simulation of integrated storage systems in photovoltaic plants

Dr. Alessandro Ciocia
Dr. Antonio D'angola
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • photovoltaic plants
  • self-sufficiency
  • storage systems
  • distributed generation
  • maintenance
  • forecasting

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

30 pages, 17740 KiB  
Article
Analysis of Different Scenarios to Include PV Rooftop Systems with Battery Energy Storage Systems in Olive Mills
by Jose Luis Sánchez-Jiménez, Francisco José Muñoz-Rodríguez, Gabino Jiménez-Castillo, Antonio Javier Martinez-Calahorro and Catalina Rus-Casas
Energies 2024, 17(1), 144; https://doi.org/10.3390/en17010144 - 27 Dec 2023
Viewed by 581
Abstract
The industrial sector is not the one with the highest energy consumption but, together with, it represents the most, together with the transport sector, the most polluting ones. Photovoltaic Rooftop systems and battery energy storage systems are very strong candidates to include renewable [...] Read more.
The industrial sector is not the one with the highest energy consumption but, together with, it represents the most, together with the transport sector, the most polluting ones. Photovoltaic Rooftop systems and battery energy storage systems are very strong candidates to include renewable energy, allowing greater grid autonomy and greenhouse gas mitigation. Therefore, this paper aims to outline it will be provided a methodology based on monitored data to analyze the potential of photovoltaic Rooftops with battery energy storage systems regarding self-consumption and self-sufficiency indices in the industrial sector. Direct self-consumption and self-sufficiency indices, either with or without storage, will be analyzed. In addition, the iso self-consumption and iso self-sufficiency curves are used, which allow us to evaluate the matching between the generation and consumption profiles considering either direct self-consumption or the use of batteries. In this sense, a large, medium, and small olive mill were selected in order to cover the entire spectrum of these industries. Olive mills are suitable candidates for the incorporation of photovoltaic systems since generation profiles match the consumption profiles. However, the size of these systems is highly dependent on the period of consumption to be faced. Regarding batteries, both during the harvest and off-harvest periods, the impact on self-sufficiency becomes significant, reaching increases of up to 10%, depending on the battery capacity used. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Photovoltaic Solar Energy II)
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18 pages, 7049 KiB  
Article
Revolutionizing Solar Power Forecasts by Correcting the Outputs of the WRF-SOLAR Model
by Cheng-Liang Huang, Yuan-Kang Wu, Chin-Cheng Tsai, Jing-Shan Hong and Yuan-Yao Li
Energies 2024, 17(1), 88; https://doi.org/10.3390/en17010088 - 22 Dec 2023
Viewed by 509
Abstract
Climate change poses a significant threat to humanity. Achieving net-zero emissions is a key goal in many countries. Among various energy resources, solar power generation is one of the prominent renewable energy sources. Previous studies have demonstrated that post-processing techniques such as bias [...] Read more.
Climate change poses a significant threat to humanity. Achieving net-zero emissions is a key goal in many countries. Among various energy resources, solar power generation is one of the prominent renewable energy sources. Previous studies have demonstrated that post-processing techniques such as bias correction can enhance the accuracy of solar power forecasting based on numerical weather prediction (NWP) models. To improve the post-processing technique, this study proposes a new day-ahead forecasting framework that integrates weather research and forecasting solar (WRF-Solar) irradiances and the total solar power generation measurements for five cities in northern, central, and southern Taiwan. The WRF-Solar irradiances generated by the Taiwan Central Weather Bureau (CWB) were first subjected to bias correction using the decaying average (DA) method. Then, the effectiveness of this correction method was verified, which led to an improvement of 22% in the forecasting capability from the WRF-Solar model. Subsequently, the WRF-Solar irradiances after bias correction using the DA method were utilized as inputs into the transformer model to predict the day-ahead total solar power generation. The experimental results demonstrate that the application of bias-corrected WRF-Solar irradiances enhances the accuracy of day-ahead solar power forecasts by 15% compared with experiments conducted without bias correction. These findings highlight the necessity of correcting numerical weather predictions to improve the accuracy of solar power forecasts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Photovoltaic Solar Energy II)
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22 pages, 4841 KiB  
Article
Addressing Challenges in Delivering Sustainable Rural Water Provision Using Solar Water Pumping in Malawi: A Stakeholder Analysis
by Esther Phiri, Paul N. Rowley and Richard E. Blanchard
Energies 2023, 16(23), 7758; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16237758 - 24 Nov 2023
Viewed by 688
Abstract
Despite the presence of relatively high insolation, solar photovoltaic water pumping (SWP) is rarely used for water provision in Malawi. Current methods of water abstraction are labour-intensive and have low discharge rates. A stakeholder analysis was carried out to evaluate the role, responsibilities, [...] Read more.
Despite the presence of relatively high insolation, solar photovoltaic water pumping (SWP) is rarely used for water provision in Malawi. Current methods of water abstraction are labour-intensive and have low discharge rates. A stakeholder analysis was carried out to evaluate the role, responsibilities, and challenges faced by individuals, communities, and organisations involved in developing SWP systems. Analysis of data collected via semi-structured interviews with stakeholders from government departments, public and private organisations, entrepreneurs, non-governmental organisations, and microfinance organisations shows that the national government should provide an enabling environment for other actors to deliver SWP projects. Further, this study reveals diverse interlinked challenges in delivering sustainable water and energy services related to policies, monitoring, coordination, financing, human resources, information and awareness, stakeholder malfeasance, political interference, and flawed community management. The impacts of these challenges result in inadequate water service provision resulting from access inequality, non-functionality, substandard installations, reliance on donations, substandard renewable energy products, and slow technology uptake. The results of this study imply that, given appropriate finance and management frameworks, effective coordination, enforcement of product and installation standards, and awareness and sensitisation of communities to SWP, significantly improved access to drinking and irrigation water for the rural population of Malawi and other countries in sub-Saharan Africa can be achieved. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Photovoltaic Solar Energy II)
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