Renewable Energy Resources on ScienceOpen

Many eyes are turning to renewable energy as a potential solution for a green future. ScienceOpen supports this growing interest by increasingly integrating green energy research into its discovery environment. With a collection of thousands of open access articles on the science of climate change, ScienceOpen is a valuable platform to stay informed about recent developments in the field of environmental studies. However, understanding the basic science is only the first step. We next need to develop and implement transformative solutions. In this blog post, we want to share several resources on ScienceOpen which push the frontiers of knowledge on renewable energy and its applications.

Highlighting Solar Energy Research

Those who ever had a handheld calculator are surely familiar with photovoltaic cells. With the help of electromagnetic radiation, solar cells generate electric current that can be utilized as a clean and sustainable energy source. Of course, the potential of this technology goes far beyond powering pocket devices. How far exactly is the topic of EPJ Photovoltaics published by EDP Sciences. This peer-reviewed journal offers open access content to engineers everywhere on topics related to energy conversion, high efficiency cells, and novel materials and structures for optical trapping. As the technology is becoming more advanced, its large-scale applications attract increased attention. That is why EPJ Photovoltaics also includes a discussion of modelling approaches, as well as risk management strategies for future economies.

Without doubt, the solar energy’s role in the transformation towards low footprint societies is pivotal. Yet, it must still overcome many technological and environmental challenges. These issues are also discussed in EPJ Photovoltaics, which presents ongoing research on alleviating problems connected to temperature fluctuations, the presence of dust, or changing solar irradiation levels. Sometimes, these studies take an unusual turn. Occluding the calculator’s cell is enough to stop energy generation, so one can ask whether this phenomenon is present at a cosmological scale. One of the articles featured in the EPJ Photovoltaics explores this issue by presenting the results of monitoring a photovoltaic system during the partial solar eclipse of August 2017.

There is a lot more to learn about solar energy in the EPJ Photovoltaics collection. Most importantly, all the resources provided by the journal are open access and can be easily accessed thanks to ScienceOpen’s convenient search and discovery environment. One additional great feature provided by ScienceOpen is that it puts the research presented in the EPJ Photovoltaics in the broader scientific context. There are dozens of publisher- and researcher-led ScienceOpen Collections that help to relate academic content across topics and disciplines into a coherent and informative whole.

More on Renewable Energy

For instance, in addition to the research on solar energy sources, ScienceOpen hosts a Collection by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). This collection compliments the research in EPJ Photovoltaics by exploring alternative methods of energy harvesting, such as thermal or wind power generation. The detailed treatment of these topics can be found in the IET Renewable Power Generation journal.

Advancements in the methods of energy generation must be accompanied by developing a new system of energy storage and distribution. Additional journals featured in the IET Collection, such as IET Generation, Transmission & Distribution and IET Smart Grid, are great resources forunderstanding the challenges for future energy systems, e.g. defending power systems against cyberattacks or integrating electric cars into the infrastructure of smart cities. The knowledge of the ‘smart’ energy systems can be deepened further thanks to the ‘Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)’ Collection by BCS, The Charered Institute for IT. This collection features extra information on topics related to monitoring, control and cybersecurity of the power distribution infrastructure.

Research related to renewable energy generation and distribution are pulled together in the ‘Renewable Energy Super Collection’ by Dr Christoph von Friedeburg. This impressive selection features almost 550 scientific articles across six topical selections: Wind, Solar, Storage, Geothermal, Hydropower, and Distribution Grid. The Super Collection is not only a useful resource on renewable energy, but also a showcase of the ScienceOpen Collection infrastructure. By curating collections, researchers can bring together the most literature in their fields, as well as increase the visibility and context for their own research. Other energy related researcher-led collections include Science for Clean Energy Horizon 2020 and Silicon thin film solar cells.

Become a Collection Editor!

If you are a researcher with expertise in the energy sector, you can start your own free-of-charge ScienceOpen Collection and promote your research area. You can highlight the most relevant and groundbreaking research for your peers or simply provide an introduction for newcomers to the field. The possibilities are countless, so if you would like to experiment with ScienceOpen and make your research more discoverable, you can learn more here or contact Stephanie Dawson to apply for Editor status.

References:

• Abu Hamed, Tareq, Nadja Adamovic, Urs Aeberhard, Diego Alonso-Alvarez, Zoe Amin-Akhlaghi, Matthias Auf der Maur, Neil Beattie, u. a. „Multiscale in modelling and validation for solar photovoltaics“. EPJ Photovoltaics 9, Nr. epjpv/2018/01 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1051/epjpv/2018008.
• Kurinec, Santosh K., Michal Kucer, und Bill Schlein. „Monitoring a photovoltaic system during the partial solar eclipse of August 2017“. EPJ Photovoltaics 9, Nr. epjpv/2018/01 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1051/epjpv/2018005.