Special Issue "Renewable Energy: Technologies and Challenges"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2022.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Yu-En Wu
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Electronic Engineering,National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology,Kaohsiung 82445, Taiwan
Interests: power electronic; green energy system; smart grid; LED saving-energy lighting; microcontroller design system.
Prof. Dr. Chun-An Cheng
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Electrical Engineering, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung 84001, Taiwan
Interests: power electronics; power conversion; electronic lighting; energy-saving
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The development of renewable energy has a critical impact on the sustainability of energy. Renewable energy is a kind of energy that meets people’s increasing demands without compromising future usage. In order to make it widely available and naturally replenished, it is important to improve technologies in renewable energy.

The purpose of this issue is to improve the technology of renewable energy development and to discuss the technical bottlenecks and challenges in the process of technological development.

Scientific contributions will be accepted for the following areas: power electronics, development and application of renewable energy systems, smart grids, distributed energy systems, emerging technologies, power conversion technologies, etc.

The several areas specified in this issue are of considerable help to the technological improvement of renewable energy. It is also possible to understand the bottlenecks and challenges of current renewable energy development through the proposal of this issue: Make the application of renewable energy more popular.

Prof. Dr. Yu-En Wu
Prof. Dr. Chun-An Cheng
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 papers will be 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 1900 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

  • power electronics
  • renewable energy
  • smart grids
  • power conversion

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

Article
Operation of a UXE-Type 11-Level Inverter with Voltage-Balance Modulation Using NLC and ACO-Based SHE
Sustainability 2021, 13(16), 9035; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13169035 - 12 Aug 2021
Viewed by 339
Abstract
In this article, the UXE-Type inverter is considered for eleven-level operation. This topology exhibits a boosting capability along with reduced switches and one source. An algorithm that utilizes the redundant states to control the voltage-balance of the auxiliary direct current (DC)-link is presented. [...] Read more.
In this article, the UXE-Type inverter is considered for eleven-level operation. This topology exhibits a boosting capability along with reduced switches and one source. An algorithm that utilizes the redundant states to control the voltage-balance of the auxiliary direct current (DC)-link is presented. The proposed control algorithm is capable of maintaining the voltages of each capacitor at Vdc/4 resulting in a successful multilevel operation for all values of load. The inverter is also compared with 11-level inverters. The modulation of the inverter is performed by employing nearest level control and ant colony optimization based selective harmonic elimination. The maximum inverter efficiency is 98.1% and its performance is validated on an hardware-in-the-loop platform. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Renewable Energy: Technologies and Challenges)
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Article
Novel High-Efficiency Three-Port Bidirectional Step-Up/Step-Down DC–DC Converter for Photovoltaic Systems
Sustainability 2021, 13(14), 7913; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13147913 - 15 Jul 2021
Viewed by 363
Abstract
This paper presents a novel high-efficiency three-port bidirectional DC–DC converter for photovoltaic (PV) systems. A PV system’s output is stepped up to supply a DC bus or DC load while charging the battery. When the PV output is insufficient, the battery voltage is [...] Read more.
This paper presents a novel high-efficiency three-port bidirectional DC–DC converter for photovoltaic (PV) systems. A PV system’s output is stepped up to supply a DC bus or DC load while charging the battery. When the PV output is insufficient, the battery voltage is stepped up to the DC bus; when the DC bus has excess energy, it is stepped down to charge the battery. Thus, a high-efficiency three-port bidirectional step-up/step-down converter is achieved. A common-core coupled inductor was designed and adopted in the proposed converter. Power switches and diodes in the circuit are shared to achieve bidirectional operation. In step-up mode, the clamp capacitor is used to reduce the voltage spike on the main switches. Moreover, the voltage-doubling capacitor recovers energy from the secondary-side leakage inductance. Furthermore, the input capacitors recover the primary-side leakage inductance energy in step-down mode. Thus, the converter can improve its conversion efficiency. Finally, this paper details the implementation of a 500 W three-port bidirectional converter to verify the feasibility and the practicability of the proposed topology. According to the measurement results, the highest efficiency levels of the PV and the battery in step-up mode were 94.3% and 94.1%, respectively; the highest efficiency in step-down mode was 95.2%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Renewable Energy: Technologies and Challenges)
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Article
Development of Supercapacitor-Aided Hybrid Energy Storage System to Enhance Battery Life Cycle of Electric Vehicles
Sustainability 2021, 13(14), 7682; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13147682 - 09 Jul 2021
Viewed by 476
Abstract
This paper presents a C-rate control method for a battery/supercapacitor (SC) hybrid energy storage system (HESS) to enhance the life cycle of the battery in electric vehicles (EVs). The proposed HESS provides satisfactory power for dynamic movements of EVs (e.g., acceleration or braking) [...] Read more.
This paper presents a C-rate control method for a battery/supercapacitor (SC) hybrid energy storage system (HESS) to enhance the life cycle of the battery in electric vehicles (EVs). The proposed HESS provides satisfactory power for dynamic movements of EVs (e.g., acceleration or braking) while keeping the battery current within a secure level to prevent it from degradation. The configurations of conventional HESSs are often complex due to the two energy storages and their current/voltage sensing involved. Therefore, in this paper, a simple current-sensing scheme is utilized and the battery is directly treated as a controlled variable to help the battery output current remain stable for different load conditions. While the proposed circuit requires only one current feedback signal, neither the SC nor load current sensors are needed, and the circuit design is thus significantly simplified. Both simulation and experimental results validated the effectiveness of the proposed HESS operating in conjunction with the motor drive system. The proposed method aims at fully utilizing recycled energy and prolonging battery lifespan. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Renewable Energy: Technologies and Challenges)
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