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Advanced Technology for Solar Thermal Cooling, Heating, and Energy Storage—2nd Edition

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: 15 November 2026 | Viewed by 1166

Special Issue Editors

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand
Interests: solar thermal cooling; vapour-compression refrigeration systems and heat pumps; cold thermal energy storage; solid adsorption refrigeration system
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Guest Editor
Department of Thermal Energy and Power Engineering, Yantai University, Yantai, China
Interests: solar thermal cooling; ejector refrigeration system
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Guest Editor
Department of Electrical Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden
Interests: modeling; learning based and model predictive control for energy systems and mechatronics systems

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The path towards achieving a more sustainable future is possible with the development of technologies that facilitate various human needs. Solar technology, as one of the leading decarbonising technologies, is growing much faster than any other energy technologies in history, fast enough to completely displace fossil fuels from the global economy by 2050. Solar energy plays a major role in the green energy supply of the future, both locally for individual homeowners and in the form of large power stations. 

A key area of interest is solar thermal cooling via sorption or thermomechanical cycles, which often provides valuable co-generated heating and maximizes system efficiency. Furthermore, overcoming the intermittency of solar resources is vital. This Special Issue aims to highlight innovations in sorption, thermochemical, and phase-change material storage to ensure a reliable and dispatchable thermal energy supply.

This Special Issue aims to present and disseminate the most recent advances related to the theory, design, controlling, modelling, case study, validation, and measurements of all types of energy conversion systems. Papers focused on solar thermal technologies related to cooling and heating systems or energy storage are highly welcome.

Topics of interests for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • All aspects of solar thermal technologies related to cooling and heating systems, including thermal-sorption (adsorption and absorption) and thermomechanical systems.
  • All aspects of solar-sourced energy storages, including sorption and thermochemical heat storages.
  • Solar dissociative evaporative cooling technology.
  • Hybrid solar cooling technology.
  • Multi-use solar systems for heating, cooling, and power generation.
  • Phase-change material in solar thermal storage.
  • Numerical modelling of transient system performance, particularly for thermal storage and hybrid solar cycles.
  • Fault-tolerant strategy and control framework.

Dr. Jay Wang
Dr. Dingli Duan
Dr. Meng Yuan
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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

  • solar energy
  • solar thermal cooling
  • sorption system
  • energy storage power generation
  • evaporative cooling
  • fault-tolerant

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

20 pages, 7050 KB  
Article
Experimental and Visualization Study of Flow Boiling in Open Rectangular Microchannel with Large Aspect Ratio
by Yaning Guo, Lulu Li, Bo Zhang, Xiangji Guo and Ningsheng Wang
Energies 2026, 19(2), 561; https://doi.org/10.3390/en19020561 - 22 Jan 2026
Viewed by 667
Abstract
This experimental study comparatively investigates flow boiling performance and mechanisms in open and closed rectangular microchannels (ORMs/CRMs) with a high aspect ratio of 4. Fabricated on a copper substrate and sealed with a transparent window for visualization, the systems were tested using refrigerant [...] Read more.
This experimental study comparatively investigates flow boiling performance and mechanisms in open and closed rectangular microchannels (ORMs/CRMs) with a high aspect ratio of 4. Fabricated on a copper substrate and sealed with a transparent window for visualization, the systems were tested using refrigerant R245fa. Experiments spanned mass fluxes from 89 to 545 kg/m2·s and heat fluxes from 6.3 to 218.5 W/cm2 at an inlet temperature of 14 °C. Flow visualization reveals that the ORM configuration accelerates the transition from bubbly to slug and churn flow regimes and facilitates a unique stratified flow pattern absent in the CRM. Quantitatively, the ORM enhances the heat transfer coefficient by 4.2–14.1% while reducing the system pressure drop by 11.5–58.6% within the low mass flux range (89–269 kg/m2·s). Conversely, at a high mass flux of 545 kg/m2·s, the ORM’s pressure drop increases substantially by 29.9–246.8%, attributed to significant two-phase losses in the top-gap region. As heat flux increases, inertial forces dominate over gravitational effects, shifting the primary heat transfer contribution from nucleate to flow boiling. The figure of merit (FOM) confirms the overall performance superiority of the ORM at low mass fluxes. This work provides valuable insights and design guidelines for high-performance, high-aspect-ratio microchannel heat sinks in advanced thermal management systems. Full article
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