Source: China Solar thermal Alliance
On November 28, 2025, the China Renewable Energy Society (CRES) introduced the record of winners of 2025 CRES Science and Technology Awards, together with 10 first prize winners, 12 second prize winners, 13 third prize winners, 1 Science and Technology Achievement Award winner, 5 Science and Technology Innovation Award winners, and 10 Young Scientist Award winners.
Dr. Wang Zhifeng, researcher on the Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IEECAS) and Chairman of CRES Concentrating Solar Power Committee, received the Science and Technology Achievement Award.
Wang Zhifeng, born in October 1963, holding a PhD in Engineering Thermophysics from Tsinghua University, Researcher and PhD Supervisor at IEECAS, Chairman of China Solar Thermal Alliance (CSTA), Vice President of the IEA-SolarPACES, Chairman of CRES Concentrating Solar Power Committee, 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, one of the primary specifically appointed core spine researchers of the CAS (2015), one of the primary recipients of the National “Ten Thousand Talents Program” (2014), knowledgeable receiving particular allowance of the State Council, winner of the Outstanding Contribution Award for Solar Thermal Energy Utilization in China (2016). He has twice been awarded the title of CAS Excellent Doctoral Supervisor. He has printed a monograph on concentrating solar energy (in Chinese, English, and Arabic), titled Design of Solar Thermal Power Plants, and greater than 70 papers.
He has lengthy been dedicated to the modeling and optimization of concentrating solar energy (CSP) techniques, in addition to the analysis on photothermal conversion gear and thermal vitality storage. He proposed that the core scientific drawback of photo voltaic thermal energy era is the coupling of unsteady light-heat-work processes, offered a roadmap for the event CSP know-how, and proposed the idea of the 4th-generation CSP know-how. He has presided over quite a few main initiatives financed by the 863 Program and 973 Program (each 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, attaining a number of breakthroughs. As the challenge chief, he has led the development of:
Asia’s first photo voltaic tower plant (2012);
China’s first cross-seasonal photo voltaic thermal vitality storage challenge, attaining 210-day steady thermal vitality storage throughout totally different seasons (2021);
the world’s first CSP kiln for cement and ceramics firing (2022); and
the world’s first supercritical CO2 CSP system (2024).