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Advanced Materials and Systems for Sustainable Energy Solutions

A Special Issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050) belonging to the section "Energy Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2027 | Viewed by 888

Editors


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Guest Editor
I3N, Department of Physics, University of Aveiro, Santiago Campus, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal
Interests: environmentally friendly materials for energy conversion; energy storage; refrigeration
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
I3N, Department of Physics, University of Aveiro, Santiago Campus, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal
Interests: magnetic nanostructures; nanomaterials for energy harvesting; sensors
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Nanostructured functional materials, engineered through precise dimensional control, hold tremendous potential for a wide range of energy conversion and storage applications. Their exceptional properties—such as their high surface-to-volume ratios and reduced diffusion lengths—make them ideal candidates for next-generation energy technologies. In light of the growing urgency to mitigate environmental degradation and combat global warming, the development of clean and renewable energy solutions is more critical than ever.

This Special Issue aims to explore how material engineering—through the modulation of size, shape, composition, and strain—impacts the performance of nano- and microstructured materials across diverse energy-related applications. Topics include, but are not limited to, energy conversion mechanisms based on piezoelectric, thermal, magnetic, magnetoelectric, pyroelectric, electrocaloric, magnetocaloric, chemical, and hybrid functionalities. These materials are highly relevant for the development of efficient sensors, actuators, and transducers.

Additionally, this Special Issue will cover advances in electrical energy storage technologies and innovative strategies to enhance their performance. Contributions are welcome in areas such as ferroelectric energy storage, electrode and electrolyte materials for batteries and supercapacitors, solid-state hydrogen storage systems, nanostructured solar cells, and heterogeneous catalysis.

We invite your original research articles and comprehensive reviews that contribute to this rapidly evolving and impactful field.

Dr. Eskilla Venkata Ramana
Dr. Manuel Almeida Valente
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-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability 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 2400 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

  • energy conversion
  • energy storage
  • environmental
  • photocatalysis
  • processing

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

30 pages, 4954 KB  
Article
Experimental Validation of a Hybrid Photovoltaic Backup System for Critical Load Energy Resilience: Design, Performance Assessment, and Mathematical Model Verification
by Javier De la Torre-Guzmán, Elizabeth Salazar-Jácome, Wilson Sánchez-Ocaña and Félix Chávez-Jácome
Sustainability 2026, 18(16), 8320; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18168320 - 13 Aug 2026
Viewed by 428
Abstract
Power outages pose a significant challenge to the operational continuity of businesses and infrastructure that rely on critical loads. In this context, hybrid photovoltaic systems with energy storage represent a sustainable alternative for improving energy resilience and reducing dependence on conventional backup sources. [...] Read more.
Power outages pose a significant challenge to the operational continuity of businesses and infrastructure that rely on critical loads. In this context, hybrid photovoltaic systems with energy storage represent a sustainable alternative for improving energy resilience and reducing dependence on conventional backup sources. The objective of this research was to design, implement, and experimentally validate a hybrid photovoltaic system with battery storage for critical-load backup in a commercial facility located in Quito, Ecuador. The methodology included energy-demand assessment, photovoltaic and battery storage sizing, integration of an automatic transfer system, and experimental evaluation under real operating conditions. In addition, a mathematical model was developed to describe the system’s energy behavior, including a backup-autonomy model validated against experimental data. The results showed that the system maintained the power supply to critical loads during controlled grid-interruption events, achieving an average backup autonomy of 3.2 h under an approximate demand of 2.2 kW. The hybrid backup system delivered approximately 7.04 kWh during representative backup events through the combined contribution of photovoltaic generation and battery storage. Furthermore, the backup-autonomy model showed a relative error of 1.9% with respect to the experimental measurements, demonstrating good agreement between the theoretical model and the observed performance. The findings confirm the technical feasibility of hybrid photovoltaic systems for improving energy resilience in critical-load applications. The main contribution of this study is the experimental validation of a commercially implemented hybrid photovoltaic backup system under real operating conditions, providing empirical evidence and a replicable methodology for future implementations in similar commercial and industrial facilities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Materials and Systems for Sustainable Energy Solutions)
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