Publications

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