Digital Twin for mitigating solar energy resources challenges: A Perspective Review

The leading-edge technology of Digital Twin (DT) presents potential solutions for challenges associated with renewable energy resources (RER), particularly solar energy, such as optimal management, random nature and unpredictability, maintenance, security, and energy efficiency. These issues are more elevated today due to the widespread adoption of solar energy in the power system. A DT leverages advanced technologies including the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, and computing techniques, to observe and confirm the state of physical entities, analyze data and derive valid information to monitor and optimize the entity's operation. This Perspective strives to trace the growing body of advances in the field and proposes opportunity areas for DT of RER (RERDT) and DT of solar energy (DTSE) in various application domains including forecasting, reliability analysis, security, and resiliency. Barriers that hinder the adoption of RERDT and DTSE technologies to meet its continuous operation are discussed, and also possible views as future trends to deal with the challenges are presented. RERDT and DTSE technologies promise to be transformative in enabling flexible and sustainable energy sources as well as in active real-time management since it provides a full comprehension of the resources. © 2024 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Solar Energy Society.