Solar Energy Technology in Sustainable Development
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Sustainability".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 July 2026 | Viewed by 8
Special Issue Editors
Interests: solar concentration; optics; photonics; solar-pumped lasers; sustainable technologies
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: solid-state lasers; solar power concentration; optics and lasers
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
As global energy demands become critical, as well as the environmental consequences of fossil-fuel-based energy consumption, the research for solar energy technology and clean energy solutions has grown towards innovation and versatility, enabling environmental and economic benefits in many technological segments, such as green hydrogen production and renewable energy cycles.
Solar energy technology is widely investigated for usage in several industrial and scientific areas, such as material processing, the medical industry, sustainable energy production, communications, scientific research, and space-borne applications. Especially due to the intermittent nature of renewable energy sources, the integration of smart grids and efficient energy storage technologies becomes increasingly important. Solar energy, combined with innovations in photonics technology, has also significantly improved the efficiency of solar energy systems, not only for optimizing solar power collection and generation but also playing a pivotal role in energy storage and grid management, propelling the future development of these sustainable systems.
The main current and future challenges for solar energy and green technologies are to increase the efficiency, versatility on potential applications, and scalability compared with other classical, fossil-fuel-based technologies, as a more robust and available implementation, suitable for different fields of low-carbon industry, technology, and poligeneration.
This Special Issue aims to collect original research articles, reviews, and case studies on solar energy research and green technologies, which could promote novel sustainable energy systems and their potential innovative applications. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Novel energy storage systems and their integration and role in balancing supply and demand, improving grid stability.
- Innovations in smart grids and microgrids involving solar energy to create flexible, reliable and efficient sustainable energy infrastructures.
- Advancements in multi-beam solar-pumped lasers using new materials to maximize the collection efficiency and brightness.
- Possibilities of integrated operation of solar collectors, sustainable energy generation, and how energy infrastructure should evolve as the grid becomes more decarbonised and decentralized.
- Potential applications of sustainable energy in low-carbon industry and poligeneration.
- Prospects of solar-pumped lasers for green hydrogen production.
We look forward for receiving your contributions.
Dr. Bruno D. Tibúrcio
Dr. Dawei Liang
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. 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
- solar energy
- energy storage
- smart grids
- solar concentration
- solar-pumped laser
- hydrogen production
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