The utilization of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems have gained a termandous momentum due to decreasing costs of PV arrays and interface systems by as much as 50% during the last five years. The advencements on electric utility grid interface systems and utilization of PV arrays in standalone local power generation and smart buildings with storage battery and back up hybrid systems are increasing the PV system utilization as the emerging form of renewable/alternative energy source. In many countries, the goverment has instituted special insentives and tax credits as well as feed-in tariff and energy purchase back legislation programs in order to promte and encourage manufacturers and consumers and boost new investments in solar PV Energy use in different sectors.

As the solar PV systems emerge as viable and economic source of green energy with increasing installation sites every year, attempts are made to find economical and technological solutions to the problems arising from various aspects of the PV utilization schemes. The state of the art researh is continuing in all areas from material sciences to manufacturing and Interfacing in order to ensure efficient utilzation and commercial viability in terms of cost, security and durability of PV and hybrid PV-wind-storage systems. Specific areas focus on PV array topologies, dynamic sun tracking, maximum power point control, storage devices and efficient decoupled interface with smart grid and smart building to ensure dynamic matching of energy to load requirements with minimal impact on the host utility grid. Besides, energy management studies in smart grids and distributed generation have become another additional areas of demand side management and energy efficient hybrid utility-renewable energy.

We invite investigators to contribute original research articles as well as review articles that will stimulate the continuing efforts and promote new research directions to address the undergoing challenges and technological requirements in PV systems utilization in order to ensure commercial viability, improve usability, security, reliability, and integration of sustainability of converting sun power to electricity. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Advances in PV cell electronics
• Advancements in sun tracking PV systems
• Novel topologies of PV arrays
• Current trends in PV module design and interfacing
• Developments in power electronics converters used in PV applications
• Improvements in maximum power point tracking algorithms and methodologies
• Novel power filters for power quality and isolation issues in grid connected PV applications
• New control strategies in all areas of PV applications
• Sustainability of the energy generated by PV systems
• Distributed generation systems consisting of PV systems and integration with smart grid and smart building
• Energy management algorithms for PV powered systems

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