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Energies
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Exploring Energy Innovations: The Rise of Next-Generation Photovoltaic Modules
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Exploring Energy Innovations: The Rise of Next-Generation Photovoltaic Modules

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: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 706

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Jaehyeong Lee

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea
Interests: high-efficiency solar cells based on heterojunctions and multi-junctions; thermochromic and electrochromic films for energy saving smart windows; high-power and lightweight PV modules; floating PV systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Chaehwan Jeong

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Energy and Applied Optics Research Group, Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, Gwangju 61012, Republic of Korea
Interests: shingled PV modules; photovoltaic thermal (PVT) modules and systems; building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) modules; mobile integrated photovoltaic (MIPV) module

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Driven by the global need to decarbonize the energy sector, the photovoltaic (PV) industry continues to evolve rapidly, with next-generation PV modules playing a key role in shaping the future of solar energy. Innovations in cell architecture, materials, and integration technologies have led to significant improvements in power conversion efficiency, energy yield, form factor flexibility, and long-term reliability. These advancements are essential for meeting the growing demand for high-performance solar systems across diverse applications, ranging from residential rooftops to utility-scale power plants and emerging building-integrated solutions.

This Special Issue, "Exploring Energy Innovations: The Rise of Next-Generation Photovoltaic Modules," will provide a forum for the latest scientific and technological developments in advanced PV modules. As new technologies such as tandem cells, bifacial designs, shingled modules, and perovskite-based solutions transition from research to commercialization, critical investigations are needed to assess their performance, durability, cost-effectiveness, and environmental impact under real-world conditions.

We invite original research articles, reviews, and case studies that address (i) novel cell and module architectures (e.g., tandem, heterojunction, perovskite/silicon); (ii) materials innovation, including encapsulants, backsheets, and coatings; (iii) advancements in module integration, interconnection, and packaging techniques; (iv) performance analysis under diverse operating conditions, including temperature, light spectrum, and angular incidence; (v) the modeling and simulation of next-generation modules; and (vi) sustainability metrics, including lifecycle assessment and recyclability.

This Special Issue will showcase breakthrough innovations, facilitate interdisciplinary dialogue, and contribute to the global acceleration of solar energy adoption through next-generation module technology.

Prof. Dr. Jaehyeong Lee
Dr. Chaehwan Jeong
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

  • next-generation PV modules
  • tandem solar cells and modules
  • bifacial PV modules
  • shingled and/or lightweight PV modules
  • perovskite/silicon tandem modules
  • module integration technologies
  • advanced encapsulation and packaging
  • angular response of PV modules
  • temperature and spectral effects
  • field performance monitoring
  • degradation and reliability
  • lifecycle assessment and recyclability
  • PV module modeling and simulation
  • sustainable solar technology

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 2387 KB  
Article
Electrical Analysis of Non-Destructive-Cut HPBC Solar Cells via Crack Driving Index
by Woocheol Choi, Min Kwak, Geonu Kim, Jinho Shin, Kiseok Jeon, Jinyong Seok and Chaehwan Jeong
Energies 2026, 19(3), 793; https://doi.org/10.3390/en19030793 - 3 Feb 2026
Abstract
Non-destructive cutting (NDC) is promising for fabricating high-efficiency half-cut solar cells by minimizing thermal and mechanical damage during cell cutting. Here, a dual-laser NDC process, comprising an infrared (IR) laser for pre-cut formation and a thermal laser for crack propagation, was applied to [...] Read more.
Non-destructive cutting (NDC) is promising for fabricating high-efficiency half-cut solar cells by minimizing thermal and mechanical damage during cell cutting. Here, a dual-laser NDC process, comprising an infrared (IR) laser for pre-cut formation and a thermal laser for crack propagation, was applied to hybrid passivated back contact solar cells. Accordingly, the effects of scan speed, IR laser-induced pre-cut depth, and thermal laser power were systematically investigated at scan speeds of 300, 400, and 500 mm/s. Furthermore, stable process windows for cleaving were identified, within which fill factor and maximum power were evaluated. Despite differences in absolute laser power and scan speed, the highest electrical performance was consistently achieved at an intermediate pre-cut depth combined with the maximum thermal laser power available within each process window. To elucidate this behavior, a crack-driving index (ψ) was introduced to consider the coupled effects of thermal driving and crack guidance. The ψ-based analysis reveals that higher scan speeds enhance process sensitivity, highlighting a trade-off between peak performance and process robustness. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploring Energy Innovations: The Rise of Next-Generation Photovoltaic Modules)
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14 pages, 2474 KB  
Article
Simulation-Based Analysis of the Heating Behavior of Failed Bypass Diodes in Photovoltaic-Module Strings
by Ibuki Kitamura, Ikuo Nanno, Norio Ishikura, Masayuki Fujii, Shinichiro Oke and Toshiyuki Hamada
Energies 2026, 19(2), 472; https://doi.org/10.3390/en19020472 - 17 Jan 2026
Viewed by 201
Abstract
With the expansion of photovoltaic (PV) systems, failures of bypass diodes (BPDs) embedded in PV modules can degrade the power-generation performance and pose safety risks. When a BPD fails, current circulates within the module, leading to overheating and eventual burnout of the failed [...] Read more.
With the expansion of photovoltaic (PV) systems, failures of bypass diodes (BPDs) embedded in PV modules can degrade the power-generation performance and pose safety risks. When a BPD fails, current circulates within the module, leading to overheating and eventual burnout of the failed BPD. The heating characteristics of a BPD depend on its fault resistance, and although many modules are connected in series in actual PV systems, the heating risk at the module-string level has not been sufficiently evaluated to date. In this study, a numerical simulation model is constructed to reproduce the operation of PV modules and module strings containing failed BPDs, and its validity is verified through experiments. The validated numerical simulation results quantitatively illustrate how series-connected PV modules modify the fault-resistance dependence of BPD heating under maximum power-point operation. The results show that, under maximum power-point operation, the fault resistance at which BPD heating becomes critical shifts depending on the number of series-connected modules examined, while the magnitude of the maximum heating decreases as the string length increases. The heat generated in a BPD at the maximum power point decreases as the number of series-connected modules increases for the representative string configurations analyzed. However, under open-circuit conditions due to power-conditioner abnormalities, the power dissipated in the failed BPD increases significantly, posing a very high risk of burnout. Considering that lightning strikes are one of the major causes of BPD failure, adopting diodes with higher voltage and current ratings and improving the thermal design of junction boxes are effective measures to reduce BPD failures. The simulation model constructed in this study, which was experimentally validated for short PV strings, can reproduce the electrical characteristics and heating behaviors of PV modules and strings with BPD failures with accuracy sufficient for comparative and parametric trend analysis, and serves as a practical tool for system-level safety assessment, design considerations, and maintenance planning within the representative configurations analyzed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploring Energy Innovations: The Rise of Next-Generation Photovoltaic Modules)
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25 pages, 16529 KB  
Article
Multi-Scale Photovoltaic Power Forecasting with WDT–CRMABIL–Fusion: A Two-Stage Hybrid Deep Learning Framework
by Reza Khodabakhshi Palandi, Loredana Cristaldi and Luca Martiri
Energies 2026, 19(2), 455; https://doi.org/10.3390/en19020455 - 16 Jan 2026
Viewed by 217
Abstract
Ultra-short-term photovoltaic (PV) power forecasts are vital for secure grid operation as solar penetration rises. We propose a two-stage hybrid framework, WDT–CRMABIL–Fusion. In Stage 1, we apply a three-level discrete wavelet transform to PV power and key meteorological series (shortwave radiation and panel [...] Read more.
Ultra-short-term photovoltaic (PV) power forecasts are vital for secure grid operation as solar penetration rises. We propose a two-stage hybrid framework, WDT–CRMABIL–Fusion. In Stage 1, we apply a three-level discrete wavelet transform to PV power and key meteorological series (shortwave radiation and panel irradiance). We then forecast the approximation and detail sub-series using specialized component predictors: a 1D-CNN with dual residual multi-head attention (feature-wise and time-wise) together with a BiLSTM. In Stage 2, a compact dense fusion network recombines the component forecasts into the final PV power trajectory. We use 5-min data from a PV plant in Milan and evaluate 5-, 10-, and 15-min horizons. The proposed approach outperforms strong baselines (DCC+LSTM, CNN+LSTM, CNN+BiLSTM, CRMABIL direct, and WDT+CRMABIL direct). For the 5-min horizon, it achieves MAE = 1.60 W and RMSE = 4.21 W with R2 = 0.943 and CORR = 0.973, compared with the best benchmark (MAE = 3.87 W; RMSE = 7.89 W). The gains persist across K-means++ weather clusters (rainy/sunny/cloudy) and across seasons. By combining explicit multi-scale decomposition, attention-based sequence learning, and learned fusion, WDT–CRMABIL–Fusion provides accurate and robust ultra-short-term PV forecasts suitable for storage dispatch and reserve scheduling. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploring Energy Innovations: The Rise of Next-Generation Photovoltaic Modules)
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