Born in October 1963, Zhifeng Wang holds a PhD in Engineering Thermophysics from Tsinghua University, Professor and PhD Supervisor at the Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IEECAS), Chairman of China Solar Thermal Alliance (CSTA) and Concentrating Solar Power Committee of China Renewable Energy Society (CRES), Vice Chairman of the Solar Thermal Power Generation Professional Committee of China Electrotechnical Society (CES), Vice Chairman of the National Solar Thermal Power Generation Standardization Committee.
He has been elected as Vice Chairman of SolarPACES 4 times. He is one of the first recipients of the National Ten Thousand Talents Program (2014), one of the first specially-appointed core backbone researchers of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) (2015), a recipient of the Special Government Allowance of the State Council, and the winner of the Award for Outstanding Contributions to China’s Solar Thermal Energy Utilization (2016). He has twice been conferred the title of Excellent Doctoral Supervisor of the CAS. He received the National Science and Technology Achievement Award in Renewable Energy, the only top honor of its kind across China (2025).
He has long been committed to the modeling and optimization of concentrating solar power systems, as well as the research on solar thermal conversion equipment and thermal energy storage. He proposed that the core scientific problem of solar thermal power generation is the coupling of unsteady light-heat-work processes, presented a roadmap for the development CSP technology, and proposed the concept of the 4th-generation CSP technology. He has presided over numerous major projects financed by the 863 Program and 973 Program (both are National High-Technology R&D Programs of China), the National Key R&D Program of China, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, achieving multiple breakthroughs.
As the project leader, he has led the construction of:
Asia’s first solar tower experimental power plant (2012), which laid the foundation for the development of CSP in China; the world’s first CSP kiln for cement and ceramic firing (2022); and the world’s first supercritical CO₂ CSP system (2024).
Dr. Wang Zhifeng edited China’s first national standard Terminology for Concentrated Solar Thermal Power Generation, and has also published the monograph Design of Solar Thermal Power Plants in three languages: Chinese, English and Arabic. He has published more than 70 academic papers on concentrated solar power.
He has actively supported international cooperation and exchanges, including: releasing information related to the SolarPACES Conference on the Solar Thermal Alliance platform and organizing Chinese delegates to attend the conference; organizing 3 Chinese enterprises to participate in the SolarPACES Conference held in South Korea and covering the exhibition fees; coordinating domestic owners of solar thermal power plants to provide Chinese tank structural design data for NREL’s research on molten salt tank failure. Based on this collaboration, he jointly applied with NREL for the key special project Mechanical Research and Life Prediction of High-Temperature Molten Salt Tanks for Solar Thermal Power Generation under China’s National Key R&D Program for Intergovernmental International Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation.
Together with Chinese enterprises and institutions including NREL of the United States, CIEMAT of Spain, DLR of Germany, and CSP Energies of France, he successfully obtained SolarPACES R&D support for the project Research on the Thermal Energy Storage Tank.
As a participating institution of the SolarPACES international cooperation project Open data for commercial CSP projects, he has collected data on China’s solar thermal power plants to support the update of CSP project information.
Papers published in international journals:
Ziyang Liu, Zhifeng Wang, et al. Capacity optimisation and multi-dimensional analysis of air-source heat pump heating system: A case study [J]. Energy, 2024: 130784.
Fen Xu, Zhifeng Wang, et al. Prediction of solar concentration flux distribution for a heliostat based on lunar concentration image and generative adversarial networks [J]. Applied Artificial Intelligence, 2024.
Yue Lv, Zhifeng Wang, et al. CWO/SiO2 spectral beam splitter coating for photothermal synergetic catalysis: Design and development [J]. Materials Today Sustainability, 2023.
Yupu Yu , Zhifeng Wang, et al. Performance modeling of quartz tube for gravity-driven solid particle solar receiver[J].International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 2023.
Feng Hu, Zhifeng Wang, et al. Modeling study and experimental investigation of SPSR and solid particles-sCO2 heat exchanger for concentrating solar power plant [J]. Energy Reports, 2023.
Yupu Yu , Zhifeng Wang, et al. Development and testing of a 200kW tube bundle moving packed bed electrical heating device and test facility[J].International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer, 2023.
Yu Zhang, Zhifeng Wang, et al. Effect of compact fin structure on heat transfer performance of ice storage unit during freezing [J]. Applied Thermal Engineering, 230(2023)120775.
Yan Wang , Zhifeng Wang, et al. Control strategy effect on storage performance for packed-bed thermal energy storage [J].Solar Energy, 2023.
Ziwei Zhao, Zhifeng Wang, et al. The characteristics of flow and wall-to-bed heat transfer for vertical dense-phase transport flow [J]. Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science, 2022.
Ziwei Zhao, Zhifeng Wang, et al. Experimental study on heat transfer of dense phase flow through a horizontal tube under constant wall flux conditions [J]. International Journal of Thermal Sciences, 2022.
Bei Yang, Zhifeng Wang, et al. Thermoplasmonics in Solar Energy Conversion: Materials, Nanostructured Designs, and Applications [J]. ADVANCED MATERIALS, 2022.
Ming Yang, Zhifeng Wang, et al. Thermo-economic analysis of solar heating plant with the seasonal thermal storage in Northern China [J]. Solar Energy, 2022.
Yu Zhang, Zhifeng Wang, et al. On-sun testing of a 1 MWth quartz tube bundle solid particle solar receiver [J]. Renewable Energy, 2022.
Sharma S , Zhifeng Wang, et al. Thermo-mechanical analysis of a porous volumetric solar receiver subjected to concentrated solar radiation [J]. Solar Energy, 2022.
Fuliang Nie, Zhifeng Wang, et al. A CPFD simulation on the particle flow characteristics in a packed moving bed solar receiver with an added insert [J]. Solar Energy, 2021.
Shunzhou Chu, Zhifeng Wang, et al. Description and Characterization of a 114-kWe High-Flux Solar Simulator [J] Journal of Solar Energy Engineering, 2021.
Minghuan Guo, Zhifeng Wang, et al. Model for measuring concentration ratio distribution of a dish concentrator using moonlight as a precursor for solar tower flux mapping [J]. AIMS Energy, 2021
Xin Zhang, Zhifeng Wang, et al. SiNx/Cu spectral beam splitting films for hybrid photovoltaic and concentrating solar thermal systems [J]. ACS Omega, 2021.
Zhiyong Wu, Zhifeng Wang, et al. Numerical investigation of single-blow transient testing technique [J]. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer, 2020.
Zhifeng Wang, Jiani Wu, et al. Experimental study on latent thermal energy storage system with gradient porosity copper foam for mid-temperature solar energy application [J]. Applied Energy, 2020.
Ziwei Zhao, Zhifeng Wang, et al. Experimental study of pin fnned receiver tubes for a parabolic trough solarair collector [J]. Solar Energy, 2020.
Minghuan Guo, Zhifeng Wang, et al. Interpolation Vector Formulas for Reflection and Refraction of Metasurface [C]. SolarPACES, 2020.
Dongqiang Lei, Zhifeng Wang, et al. Numerical study of conduction and radiation heat losses from vacuum annulus in parabolic trough receivers [J]. Frontiers in Energy, 2020.
Guofeng Yuan, Zhifeng Wang, et al. Experimental and computational fluid dynamics investigations of tracking CPC solar collectors [J]. Solar Energy, 2020.
Yan Wang , Zhifeng Wang, et al. The benefit of using multiple thin tanks versus a short big tank for thermal storage in ceramic-sphere packed bed with airflow [J]. Journal of Solar Energy Engineering-Transactions of the ASME, 2020.
Ming Yang, Zhifeng Wang, et al. Dynamic Heat Transfer Model of Flat Plate Solar Water Collectors with Consideration of Variable Flow Rate [J]. Solar Energy, 2020.
Qiang Yu, Zhifeng Wang, et al. Modeling and dynamic simulation of thermal energy storage system for concentrating solar power plant [J]. Energy, 2020.
Qiang Yu, Zhifeng Wang, et al. Modeling and parametric study of molten salt receiver of concentrating solar power tower plant [J]. Energy, 2020.
Shunzhou Chu, Zhifeng Wang, et al. Description and Characterization of a 114-kW e High-Flux Solar Simulator [J]. Journal of Solar Energy Engineering, 2020.
Fuliang Nie, Zhifeng Wang, et al. Cold-state experimental study on discharge characteristics of solid particles in a gravity driven moving bed solar receiver [J]. Solar Energy, 2020.
Fuliang Nie, Zhifeng Wang, et al. Experimental and numerical investigation on thermal performance of a quartz tube solid particle solar receiver [J]. Solar Energy, 2020.
Bei Yang, Zhifeng Wang, et al. Thermal stratification in a cylindrical tank due to heat losses while in standby mode [J]. Solar Energy, 2019.
Diao Y H , Wang Z ,et al. Numerical investigation of the thermal performance enhancement of latent heat thermal energy storage using longitudinal rectangular fins and flat micro-heat pipe arrays [J]. Applied Energy, 2019.
Li X , Wang Z ,et al. Modeling and dynamic simulation of a steam generation system for a parabolic trough solar power plant[J].Pergamon, 2019.
Lei D , Wang Z ,et al. Temperature and thermal stress analysis of parabolic trough receivers [J]. Renewable Energy, 2019.
Li Z, Wang Z ,et al. Numerical and experimental study of solidification dangers in a molten salt receiver for cloudy conditions [J]. Solar Energy, 2019.
Yang B , Wang Z ,et al. Study on standby process of an air-based solid packed bed for flexible high-temperature heat storage: Experimental results and modelling [J]. Applied Energy, 2019.
Yang B , Wang Z ,et al. Microstructural evolution within mushy zone during paraffin’s melting and solidification [J]. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 2019.
Zhang Q , Wang Z ,et al. Preliminary comparison of two potential test methods for molten salt receiver under uniformly and Gaussian-shape distributed incident power [J]. Solar Energy, 2019.
Zhang S , Wang Z , Wu Z ,et al. Numerical investigation of the heat transport in a very loose packed granular bed air [1] receiver with a non-uniform energy flux distribution [J]. Renewable Energy, 2019.
Alketbi A S , Wang Z ,et al. Sputtered SiC coatings for radiative cooling and light absorption [J].Journal of Photonics for Energy, 2018.