Combating the Energy Crisis
Anna Troeger
Abstract
The slight decrease in global energy consumption triggered by the pandemic in 2020 came to a premature end with Russia's invasion of Ukraine. This war has led to the further deterioration of the post-pandemic world economy and sparked a global energy crisis with Europe at its center. Significant disruptions in trade, food insecurity in many developing economies, and energy price shocks are all contributing to high inflation and are the main challenges to tackle. One key question that now arises according to IEA's World Energy Outlook 2022 report is whether the high fossil fuel prices and record levels of emissions will lead to a faster transition to renewable energies, or whether the need for energy security will drive further investment in fossil fuel supply and infrastructure. We must not get lost combating the symptoms of the energy crisis rather than solving its true causes; renewable energy is the central solution to this crisis, not just a long-term goal. Solar energy can be made immediately available and provides energy price relief from the moment it is connected. One of the main talking points at the 8th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion (WCPEC-8) that took place from 26–30 September 2022 in Milan, Italy, was related to this energy transition and the rapid deployment of PV technologies on a massive and global scale. In April 2022, PV reached an important milestone of 1 TW of installed capacity worldwide and, with an exponentially growing global solar market, the Global Market Outlook for Solar Power 2022–2026 predicts global solar to reach 2.3 TW in 2025. Solar RRL Editors, including myself, attended the WCPEC-8 and the official Becquerel prize ceremony which took place on this occasion, and I want to take this opportunity to congratulate our esteemed Editorial Advisory Board member, Marko Topič (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia), on winning the 2022 Award for Outstanding Merits in Photovoltaics. Solar RRL is pleased to continue its publishing partnership with the European PV Solar Energy Conference (EU-PVSEC) and the WCPEC-8. Through this partnership, the best articles from the event held in 2021 have now been published in a special issue in Solar RRL as well as in its sister journal Progress in Photovoltaics, and selected contributions from the 2022 WCPEC-8 will be published in a special issue this year. One of the highlights of 2022 was certainly the publication of our special 5th Anniversary Issue celebrating five successful years of publications covering all aspects of solar energy conversion, with several selected articles from our Editorial Advisory Board members. Moreover, our special issue “Perovskite Solar Modules—On the Way to Commercialization” highlighted the growing interest in scaling up perovskite technologies, guest-edited by our Editorial Advisory Board member Annalisa Bruno (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore), Aldo Di Carlo (CNR-ISM, Italy), and Ulrich W. Paetzold (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany). Our Hall of Fame series of invited-only review articles includes contributions on many different topics written by our Editorial Advisory Board members. In the most recent one by T. Song, D. J. Friedman, and N. Kopidakis from NREL on “How should researchers measure perovskite-based monolithic multijunction solar cells’ performance? A calibration lab's perspective”, the authors provide clear guidelines for the correct electrical performance measurements for perovskite-based multi-junctions. Their literature survey was the motivation for this work, revealing the need for more accurate, unified, as well as stabilized J–V measurements for perovskite-based multi-junctions. In this context, and to help standardize data reporting, Wiley–VCH editors have developed data reporting checklists: cover sheets that are a part of our submission process for original research articles. With input from expert researchers, each checklist indicates what we consider the absolute minimum parameters that should be reported in manuscripts for a particular field of research. These cover sheets assist authors to understand data reporting expectations and guide their manuscript preparation, as well as aiding reviewers during manuscript evaluation. Currently, we have checklists available for research involving the performance/stability of solar cells or for batteries and supercapacitors; additional checklists for other research areas are under development. In the course of this year, the checklists will be published in Solar RRL and all relevant journals along with the Supporting Information files for all accepted manuscripts. We also remain focused on publication speed as an important aspect of scholarly communication. Solar RRL has been able to maintain average handling times of 13 days from submission to first editorial decision, and 49 days from submission to acceptance in 2022. Our ability to publish author-supplied manuscripts as Accepted Articles almost instantaneously after acceptance guarantees fast and highly visible publication results in competitive areas of solar energy-conversion research. From the beginning of this year, and as a response to increasing submission and publication numbers, Solar RRL will increase its issue publication frequency from 12 to 24 issues, so please watch out for even more interesting articles on emerging and traditional solar cell technologies, photocatalysis, and more. Last but not least, and on the occasion of NREL's 45th anniversary, I am very excited to announce an upcoming virtual Special Collection of articles written by NREL researchers and published in Solar RRL, Advanced Energy Materials, Energy Technology, and Advanced Sustainable Systems. This Special Collection will be hosted on the Advanced Energy Materials journal homepage presenting the research activities at NREL. A big thank you goes to our authors, Advisory Board members, reviewers, and readers for their exceptional submissions and for providing both support and advice. Here is to many more successful years for Solar RRL and great publications from our respected authors. We wish you a happy and healthy 2023! On behalf of the editorial team, Anna Troeger Editor-in-Chief Deputy Editor Editor Editor Editor Editor Editor Administration