Advances in Photovoltaic Solar Energy

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is dedicated to photovoltaic (PV) solar energy. The reason for the current and future massive development of PV technology is the abundant amount of solar resource in the world. In particular, the solar energy received by the Earth in a year is more than 1000 times greater than the human energy consumption. Moreover, the increase in the efficiency of the PV modules and their price fall make PV one of the most installed technologies in recent years, with a new word capacity of more than 100 GW in 2020. Therefore, it is essential that the research world focuses its attention on the design, optimal operation, and maintenance of PV plants.

Contributions submitted to this Special Issue should deal with the following topics, as well as other potential topics that are not mentioned here:

• Innovative design of PV components and systems (e.g., new maximum power point tracking logics);
• Techniques for automatic fault detection (e.g., thermography and electroluminescence by drones, automatic scan of current–voltage curves);
• Smart monitoring and maintenance of utility scale PV plants;
• Techniques to increase local self-sufficiency and self-consumption by PV systems;
• Methods to support the integration of a significant share of PV generation into the power grids (e.g., coupling with storage systems, active power curtailment, reactive power injection, remote/centralized control, grid reconfigurations);
• Planning of utility scale PV generation at regional and national levels;
• Forecasting of PV generation.
• Modelling and simulation of photovoltaic energy conversion systems
• Electrical and thermal modeling of a PV cell and of a module
• Modelling, control, and simulation of integrated storage systems in photovoltaic plants

Dr. Alessandro Ciocia
Dr. Antonio D'angola
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.