About this Research Topic

Background

Several countries across the globe have made the commitment to reduce carbon emissions and have signed the 2015 Paris Agreement. This commitment drives the need to develop and implement greener technologies at a fast pace. Hence, the entire electricity ecosystem is undergoing an unprecedented transformation with the proliferation of renewables, influx of Distributed Energy Resources, Electric Vehicles Integration and Energy Storage developments. Technology developments in Solar Energy have accelerated significantly over the last couple of decades and is playing a significant role in this transition. Many consumers of electricity are becoming prosumers, since the costs of Solar based distributed power have come down significantly.

There is an immediate need for utilities to re-evaluate their role in the future. With the technology developments related to digitalization (IOT, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence) progressing at a very rapid pace, utilities need to embrace the complexities of the network and be prepared to drive decisions based on probabilities and real time data thereby enabling smarter grids. This is a call for research articles from prospective authors working in the areas of Solar Energy and Smart Grids to help enable a reduction in carbon footprint.

Integration of Solar at the farm level creates significant challenges in the operation of the grid primarily due to its intermittency nature. Technology solutions associated with Systems development including panels, inverters, energy storage, protection, integration & controls coupled with advanced grid management technologies are necessary to address this challenge.

Also, development and Implementation of Solar based Distributed Power solutions for Homes, Commercial, Industrial, Community or rural microgrids present a different set of challenges associated with weaker grids, operation and maintenance, islanded conditions, standards etc.

This Research Topic presents an excellent opportunity for researchers to share their innovations in addressing the challenges paving the way for accelerated technology development to achieve carbon neutrality. These innovation articles can be in any of the following categories.

1.Academic advancements in modeling and simulation, Solar Panel core technologies, Next Gen Power Electronics, Energy Storage and Smart grid technologies.
2.Case studies involving practical implementation of large Solar farms into the grid or smaller grid connected/islanded systems – indicating the challenges and solutions.
3.Policies and standards that have enabled faster deployment of Solar Solutions.
4.Case studies of newer business models such as Virtual Power Plants involving Consumer engagement.
5.Digitalization Technology developments and Implementation to drive efficiency and reliability of complex power systems.

Keywords: Renewable Energy, Solar Energy, Smart Grids, Environmental Sustainability, Carbon Neutrality

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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