D: Energy Storage and Application

With ever increasing concern on energy and environment, energy storage technologies and their emerging applications are one of the main themes in Energies. Since energy comes in various forms including electrical, mechanical, thermal, chemical and radioactive, the energy storage essentially stores that energy for use on demand. Major storage solutions include batteries, fuel cells, capacitors, flywheels, compressed air, thermal fluid, and pumped-storage hydro. Different energy storage technologies have different merits: more convenient, more economical, higher efficiency or longer term. Over the past few decades, these technologies have been fueled by new materials, advanced devices and novel systems. Hence, the energy storage industry continually evolves and adapts to an ever-demanding market.

The stored energy should readily be utilized on demand for diverse applications such as power utilities, commercial and residential buildings, public and domestic appliances as well as electrified transportation. In particular, energy storage systems play an utmost important role for smart grids and smart buildings that involving high renewables with the nature of intermittent power outage. Moreover, electric, hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles can offer zero or ultralow emissions, which heavily rely on using on-board energy storage such as batteries, fuel cells, ultracapacitors and ultrahigh-speed flywheels. Power accessories for energy storage systems such as bidirectional power converters, fast chargers and wireless chargers are also actively developed.

This section invites articles that address original and new research results as well as the latest developments of energy storage technologies and their emerging applications. Articles that deal with energy storage materials, devices and systems, energy conversion, management and policy, as well as on their applications to existing and future energy systems are particularly encouraged. Submissions addressing up-to-date reviews and the latest national or regional projects of energy storage systems will also be welcome. Download Section Flyer

Prof. Dr. K.T. Chau
Section Editor-in-Chief