Advances in the Optimization and Control of Solar Integrated Energy Systems
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: 17 March 2026 | Viewed by 12
Special Issue Editors
Interests: process control; model predictive control; solar energy; biosystems; agriculture
Interests: control engineering; model predictive control; solar energy; renewable energy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The global transition towards sustainable and low-carbon energy has placed solar-based technologies at the forefront of future energy systems. Solar thermal and photovoltaic plants, as well as hybrid solutions integrating storage, desalination, hydrogen, and biomass systems, have become essential for addressing today’s energy, water, and climate challenges. However, the inherent variability of solar resources, coupled with the increasing complexity of integrated multi-energy systems, poses significant challenges for reliable, efficient, and cost-effective operation. These challenges have accelerated the need for advanced optimization and control strategies capable of ensuring flexibility, resilience, and scalability across different applications and scales.
This Special Issue aims to present and disseminate the most recent advances in the optimization, modeling, and control of solar integrated energy systems. It will highlight theoretical developments, computational approaches, experimental validations, and real-world applications that contribute to improving energy efficiency, reducing costs, and enhancing the sustainability of solar-driven technologies. Both original research articles and comprehensive reviews are welcome, with contributions encouraged from a broad range of interdisciplinary fields.
Topics of interest for publication include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Optimization and control of solar thermal, photovoltaic, and hybrid systems;
- Solar-powered desalination, membrane distillation, and water–energy nexus solutions;
- Hierarchical, predictive, adaptive, and classic control schemes for solar plants;
- Integration of solar energy with storage, hydrogen, and biomass systems;
- Multi-objective optimization for efficiency, cost, and environmental performance;
- Modeling, simulation, and control of Concentrated Solar Thermal (CSP) systems at different scales;
- Control-oriented approaches for uncertainty, intermittency, and fault tolerance;
- Experimental validation and industrial applications of solar control strategies;
- Digital twins, machine learning, and AI for solar system optimization and control.
Dr. Igor Mendes Lima Pataro
Dr. Juan D. Gil
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
- solar energy systems
- system optimization
- model predictive control
- adaptive control
- multi-objective optimization
- concentrated solar power
- photovoltaics and hybrid systems
- water–energy nexus
- solar desalination
- multi-objective optimization
- digital twins and machine learning
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