Solar Energy is available to members of ISES at the following prices:
Solar Energy Journal - paper version (18 issues/year) | € 55 |
Solar Energy Online* - electronic version (18 issues/year) | € 48 |
*not available for Corporate members
The online version includes access to 18 regular volumes for the current year and access to back files up to 4 years from start of subscription, plus access to full archive of abstracts.
Not a member of ISES yet? If you are not yet a member, you will be offered the opportunity of purchasing a subscription to Solar Energy during your registration process. Please join ISES here.
For libraries, the Journal is available directly from the publisher (journals.elsevier.com/solar-energy/). Prices vary from region to region.
All subscriptions are for personal use only and may not be shared or placed in institutional or university libraries or other libraries, nor may any personal subscriptions be used for library purposes.
Solar Energy Call for Papers
Solar Energy is calling for submissions to several special issues:
Call for Papers: Photovoltaic Recycling and Carbon-Neutral Manufacturing
To meet the decarbonization goals of the global economy, it is important to ensure a large-scale deployment of renewable energy including photovoltaics (PV). The cumulative installed capacity of PV systems in the world at the end of 2020 was about 775 GWp (DC) and is expected to exceed 1 TWp in 2022 to meet the global decarbonization goals.
There is growing research on life cycle analyses (LCA), end-of-life (EoL) materials recovery, PV recyclability and carbon-neutral PV circular economy. This special issue will collect original papers and reviews to present the state-of-art research on the following topics:
- Life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) analyses for PV technologies- materials and manufacturing. Novel low-emission materials and manufacturing methods.
- Life cycle GHG analyses for PV technologies with grid integration and storage.
- Novel designs and manufacturing processes to reduce material use and increase recyclability.
- Decommissioning risks and recyclability of photovoltaic modules (specifically technologies such as CdTe, Pb-based halide perovskite solar cells).
- Novel low-emission recycling methods for PV modules and systems.
- Design, materials and methods for increasing PV module and system lifetimes.
- End-of-life material recovery strategies to ensure they are not disposed in landfills and can be reused or can be of societal value.
Submission Deadline: 31 December 2023
Advances in Solar Energy: Special Issue on Perovskite Solar Cells
Perovskite solar cells are rapidly becoming a new archetype of excitonic solar cells after the discovery of a breakthrough in the photovoltaic filed using organometal perovskites as light harvesters. Though first efficiency reported 2010 was a humble 3.8% the power conversion efficiency has rapidly improved to exceeding 25% in single-junction and to over 30% using multi-junction devices. Recently, perovskite solar cells have crossed the device efficiency of 42% under indoor/artificial light conditions leading to building-integrated photovoltaic as well as Internet of Things applications. These accomplishments have attracted a lot of attention. Despite perovskite devices having shown exciting efficiency numbers several technological challenges remain regarding its stability, replacement of toxic lead material with environmentally benign metal and stable hole transporting materials etc.
The goal of the special issue is to present snapshots of the leading research in this fascinating field that will set the stage for guiding future research activities. We aim to present a collection of experimental and theoretical papers reporting the most recent accomplishments in the field. In particular, we are interested in papers featuring new elucidations to increasing the stability of perovskite solar cells compatible with established technologies. We will give precedence to works focusing on environmentally safe answers, which include the use of lead-free perovskites, low-cost efficient hole transporting materials, electrode materials, electron transport materials and green processing. The publications in this Special Issue will improve understanding of this novel material and its properties.
Submission Deadline: 29 February 2024
Solar Energy Best Paper Awards:

This award was initiated in 1981, at that time it was called the Löf/Duffie Best Paper Award, and since 2007 it has been called the "Solar Energy Journal Best Paper Award". Every two years, the award is presented to authors of papers considered to be outstanding contributions published in the ISES scientific journal, "Solar Energy". The award is presented to papers that demonstrate significant pioneering contributions to the solar energy literature, for innovative concepts or approaches, and whose quality and presentation have a lasting impact. The papers chosen for this award are selected by the Editor-in-Chief, Subject Area Editors and Associate Editors of the Solar Energy Journal. The award consists of a certificate and a small cash prize funded by Elsevier.
Best Paper Awards are presented in the categories of:
- Solar Heating and Cooling, Buildings and Other
- Photovoltaics
- Resources and Meteorology
- Solar Environmental, Photocatalytic, and New Areas
- Concentrating Solar Power and High Temperature Processes
Publications Alert
You can sign up for email alerts from the Solar Energy Journal, so you will be notified every time a new article is published. To sign up for the alerts, please use our manual here.
Solar Energy Special Issues
Within the Solar Energy journal, special issues are published. These special issues cover solar energy technologies as well as certain ISES conferences.
Recent special issues of Solar Energy are:
- Special Issue on Particle-based Solar Energy Capture and Storage for Concentrated Solar Power
- Digital Twin Technology Applications Toward Reliable, Resilient, and Sustainable Solar Energy
- Special Issue on Solar Thermal Power and Chemistry in Honor of Prof. Aldo Steinfeld
- Special Issue on Salinity Gradient Solar Ponds: Lessons we learned and the Way Forward
- Special Section on Highlighting Energy research by authors based in the Global South
See the full list of past Solar Energy special issues here.
Abstracting / Indexing
- Applied Mechanical Review
- Applied Science & Technology Index
- BIOSIS Database
- CABS
- Current Contents
- EIC Intelligence
- Engineering Index Monthly & Author Index
- Environmental Periodicals Bibliography
- Bibliographic and Ordering Information
Commenced publication 1957