Guest Editorial: Special Section on Applications of Solar Energy to Power Systems

A special section in this issue of IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy (TSTE) is devoted to Solar Energy. This section of TSTE highlights some of the most recent research that addresses these integration challenges and presents novel solutions for the integration of solar energy into the electric power system. The Special Section in this issue contains nine papers that were selected from the forty-one papers submitted. Four of the papers in this section examine the fact that solar energy is variable in nature and could benefit from integration with energy storage. By using energy storage, solar energy can be stored during periods of high output and then used when needed. Another important aspect of integrating solar energy is the ability to forecast its power output and there are four papers that examine the latest techniques in solar forecasting. A final paper focuses on understanding the impacts of high penetrations of solar on distribution systems and development of solutions to mitigate these issues.