Accelerating the Adoption of Solar Energy towards a Low-Carbon Future

Dear Colleagues,

Solar energy is being increasingly integrated in the energy mix of many countries. However, despite its rapid growth, the adoption of solar energy is still very low given its huge potential and its known advantages. Therefore, significant and continued efforts are required from technological, economic, political, and social perspectives to accelerate the adoption of solar energy for the benefit of the environment and of human kind, given the evident threats posed by global warming and climate change.

This Special Issue focuses on the role of solar energy in an effective energy transition towards a low-carbon future. Under the Paris Agreement, many countries have committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% by 2030 compared to 1990. To this end, the use of local renewable energy resources needs to be maximized, including geothermal, wind, hydroelectric, solar, and biomass sources. The solar fraction of the local energy mix of a country can be more or less important depending on solar irradiance, technology availability, the profitability of solar installations, the commitment of decision-makers with renewable energy, the awareness of stakeholders, the available incentives, the existence of energy communities, etc.  The adoption of solar energy by different sectors may be increased by highlighting its benefits through showcases; case studies; pilots; examples of good practice; benchmarking; awareness campaigns; exemplar feasibility studies; as well as novel technologies such as thermal and electric energy storage, heating/cooling systems, PV/thermal panels, electric-vehicles, smart grids, and intelligent monitoring.

We invite prospective authors to submit outstanding research and development results, case studies, and review papers in topics that include but are not limited to the following:

• Understanding the technical, economic, political, social, cultural, and environmental factors that affect the adoption of solar energy;
• Studying ways to overcome the barriers that are faced in the deployment of solar installations;
• Providing solutions to enhance, stimulate, and accelerate the adoption of solar energy in different sectors, including, for example, public buildings, social housing, historical buildings, commercial and industrial organisations, educational institutions, hospitals, etc;
• Financing and business models related to solar energy (e.g., public–private partnerships, cooperatives)
• Solar energy roadmaps;
• Solar energy stability, scaling-up engineering and production;
• Integration of solar energy into existing power grids and future smart grids;
• Integration of solar energy into demand-response schemes;
• Solar energy sharing at neighbourhood scale (energy communities);
• Synergies between solar energy, electric vehicles, thermal/electric energy storage, water storage/management, and energy-efficient buildings;
• Efficiency of solar energy systems;
• Solar potential mapping;
• Emerging solar technologies such as photovoltaic/thermal (PVT), building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV), and CSP;
• Emerging ‘solar-in-the-loop’ applications, such as agrivoltaics, P2G (solar based power-to-gas), solar-to-hydrogen, floating PV, etc;
• End-of-life solutions/management for solar installations and their components;
• Solar energy integration into the circular economy.

Prof. Dr. Ahmed Rachid
Prof. Dr. Victor M. Becerra
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.