Solar energy is considered as the most abundant renewable energy source, and there are several different ways to harvest solar energy, such as photovoltaics (PV), solar heating/cooling, concentrating solar power (CSP), and passive solar energy. In fact, except PV, solar thermal technology is the key to all the different solar harvesting techniques, because it can directly convert sunlight into heat and makes this heat available for different applications, such as heating/cooling, power generation, and energy storage, but the proper thermal management is also important for PV’s operation. The operating temperature of solar thermal technology ranges from low (< 70°C), to medium (70°C ~ 200°C), to high (200°C ~ 600°C), and to extreme-high (> 600°C). Currently, most of the solar thermal applications are in low and medium temperature range; limited information has been reported for high and extreme-high temperature applications due to the limitations of heat transfer fluid, especially for power energy.

Recently, phase change materials (PCMs) have attracted a lot of attention in energy storage or heating/cooling applications, due to its ability of storing more energy compared with the same amount of sensible storage material, but its intrinsically low thermal conductivity has restricted its more broad applications; as a result various heat transfer enhancement technologies have been developed. Currently, PCMs have been widely applied in heating/cooling and heat recovery systems at low and medium temperature range, but the integration of PCM with solar thermal energy is not well documented. Furthermore, most of PCMs are not thermally or chemically stable at high or extreme-high temperature; as a result it is critical to develop proper engineering ways to incorporate PCM at high temperature for solar thermal applications.

This special issue is intended to address the integrated solutions between advanced solar thermal engineering and PCM. It is of great interests for researchers and scientists in the fields of mechanical engineering, materials science/engineering, chemical engineering, environmental engineering, and so forth.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Desalination or wastewater treatment using solar energy and PCM
• Solar-thermal-driven hydrogen production
• Hybrid solar thermal energy system using PCM
• High temperature latent heat thermal storage system for CSP
• Solar thermochemical energy storage integrated with PCM
• Carbon capture and storage driven by solar thermal
• Zero-emission building integrated with solar thermal systems and PCM
• PCM for photovoltaic thermal management
• Thermal management using PCM and solar thermal energy
• Systematic optimization for integrated solar thermal system with PCM
• PCM-integrated solar thermal device and its potential commercialization
• Feasibility and economic study