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Advanced Grid Integration of Photovoltaic Energy Systems

A Special Issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073) belonging to the section "A2: Solar Energy and Photovoltaic Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 September 2026 | Viewed by 1745

Editors


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Guest Editor
College of Electrical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Interests: photovoltaic power generation technology; grid-forming technologies for renewable energy integration; control and reliability of power electronics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Electrical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Interests: renewable energy and storage applications; distributed generation and control; grid supportive control; differential power processing technologies
School of Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3000, Australia
Interests: power electronics and control; smart load modelling and control; microgrid modelling and control; advanced model predictive control and its application; cybersecurity of power electronics systems and active distribution grids
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Power electronics, as an essential interface, has benefited from the development of renewable energy resources (RESs), including solar photovoltaic (PV) energy. Meanwhile, driven by the continuous decrease in the levelized cost of energy (LCoE), PV systems are now widely integrated into the power grid. However, the high penetration level of PV systems raises concerns around grid instability due to intermittent power fluctuations, such as the frequency stability induced by the deficient mechanical inertia in power electronics interfacing RES integration. Accordingly, various attempts have been made to advance the grid-friendliness of PV systems. Beyond conventional integration, recent PV systems are required to act as active power sources, particularly mitigating the adverse effects and providing intelligent controllability and flexibility, as well as by leveraging digital technologies. In this context, power electronics-based solar PV systems are being of digitalization and intelligence, which, however, also brings challenges in the era of artificial intelligence (AI). One of the key concerns in recent scholarship is how to properly digitalize the entire energy system, ensuring data availability while keeping cyber-attackers away, in order to develop advanced and smart control techniques. Additionally, testing large-scale low-inertia power electronics systems is becoming of increasing importance, as it is a cost-efficient way to validate control algorithms by integrating them into control hardware-in-the-loop (CHiL) and power hardware-in-the-loop (PHiL) systems. However, there is a dilemma to consider when performing simulations of massive power electronics: computation burdens and real-world-case representation accuracy (fidelity). Considering the above issues, this Special Issue, ‘Advanced Grid Integration of Photovoltaic Energy Systems’, proposes to collect the latest research in this field. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Modelling of large-scale PV plants, including floating PV systems;
  • Novel power converters for solar PV and energy storage systems;
  • Data-driven analysis and optimization of PV systems;
  • Artificial intelligence in solar PV energy systems;
  • Stability and resonances in power electronics systems;
  • Grid-forming technologies for PV systems;
  • Grid-supportive and grid-friendly control technologies;
  • Cybersecurity in digital and smart PV systems;
  • Testing and validation of large-scale power electronics systems;
  • Advanced and coordinated control of hybrid energy systems.

Dr. Yongheng Yang
Dr. Yinxiao Zhu
Dr. Shuo Yan
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • modeling and control
  • solar photovoltaic systems
  • power electronics converters
  • data-driven technologies
  • artificial intelligence
  • stability and control
  • grid-forming and grid-following control
  • grid support
  • cybersecurity
  • testing and validation
  • coordinated control and energy management

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

25 pages, 22258 KB  
Article
Impact of Wave-Induced Motion on the Energy Yield Differences Between Offshore Bifacial and Monofacial Photovoltaic Arrays
by Aidha Muhammad Ajmal and Yongheng Yang
Energies 2026, 19(13), 3170; https://doi.org/10.3390/en19133170 - 3 Jul 2026
Viewed by 355
Abstract
Although offshore photovoltaic (PV) systems have attracted increasing interest as a solution to land-use limitations, the influence of offshore-specific dynamic environmental conditions on PV performance remains insufficiently understood. Existing studies have primarily focused on static operating conditions or general energy yield comparisons between [...] Read more.
Although offshore photovoltaic (PV) systems have attracted increasing interest as a solution to land-use limitations, the influence of offshore-specific dynamic environmental conditions on PV performance remains insufficiently understood. Existing studies have primarily focused on static operating conditions or general energy yield comparisons between bifacial and monofacial PV technologies, while the combined effects of wave-induced motion, module tilt-angle, and sea-surface albedo on offshore PV performance have received limited attention. To address this gap, this study develops a parametric simulation framework to investigate the sensitivity of offshore bifacial photovoltaic (biPV) and monofacial photovoltaic (moPV) arrays to key offshore environmental and operational parameters. Given the scarcity of long-term operational data for offshore PV installations, a hypothetical offshore plant located in the Yellow Sea, China, is considered using real meteorological inputs. In this study, 16 kWp offshore biPV and moPV arrays are modeled and compared in terms of their performance through three case studies examining wave motions, tilt-angle variations, and surface albedo effects. Performance metrics such as maximum irradiance, total energy yield, energy yield losses, wave-induced power loss, and bifacial gain (BG) are analyzed and compared. The findings indicate that increasing wave motion diminishes the total energy yield due to higher tilt-angle fluctuations. Nevertheless, the biPV array regularly outperforms the moPV array because of the effect of the rear-side irradiance. The tilt angle analysis reveals a trade-off between energy yield and BG, with BG increasing from 0.05% to over 10% as the tilt angle increases from 10° to 45°. Higher surface albedo further enhances bifacial performance, increasing BG from 4.5% to 17.8% for albedo values of 0.05 and 0.25, respectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Grid Integration of Photovoltaic Energy Systems)
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18 pages, 6166 KB  
Article
An Adaptive-Feedforward Power Decoupling for Grid-Forming Converters with Pre-Synchronization via Sliding-Mode Control
by Qicai Ren, Zefeng Xu, Rongcai Pan, Tong Liu, Yanxu Zhang and Chao Sheng
Energies 2026, 19(3), 784; https://doi.org/10.3390/en19030784 - 2 Feb 2026
Viewed by 803
Abstract
The grid-forming (GFM) converter is an effective solution for grid support. However, mode switching failures and power coupling challenges in weak grids pose significant safety risks. To address these challenges, an adaptive feedforward power decoupling method with pre-synchronization is proposed to achieve seamless [...] Read more.
The grid-forming (GFM) converter is an effective solution for grid support. However, mode switching failures and power coupling challenges in weak grids pose significant safety risks. To address these challenges, an adaptive feedforward power decoupling method with pre-synchronization is proposed to achieve seamless switching and accurate power regulation without line impedance information. First, based on a small-signal model of the GFM converter, a power coupling coefficient considering the power control loop is presented to analyze the coupling mechanism. Second, a reactive power adaptive compensation channel is constructed, in which a sliding mode (SM) compensation controller is designed in the reactive power loop, to dynamically correct the voltage reference and achieve power decoupling. The proposed method achieves wide-range dynamic decoupling control without line impedance parameters, exhibiting strong grid adaptability. Third, an improved pre-synchronization strategy based on the SM controller is developed, which leads the virtual power to converge to zero, to ensure seamless switching between islanded and grid-connected modes. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is validated through simulation and experimental results. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Grid Integration of Photovoltaic Energy Systems)
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