Current trends and future perspective of renewable energy research in Africa; A Bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Several countries across the African continent have been challenged with energy crisis for decades. A growing number of studies have identified renewable energies as a sustainable way for Africa to address its persisting energy situation, as the continent has in abundance some of the popular renewable energy sources. However, little has been reported in the body of literature about this growing research area's global mapping and knowledge domain. By bridging this gap in research, it becomes easy to identify which authors, countries, organizations/institutions are likely to produce research that paves the way for the easy penetration of renewable energy into the existing African energy mix. Moreover, potential investors in the continent’s renewable energy can easily identify the most popular and advantageous renewable energy to invest in. Thus, the current study seeks to achieve these aims by conducting a bibliometric analysis on 1037 publications extracted from the Web of Science Core Collection using the VOSviewer software. The results from the study revealed a growing interest in Africa’s renewable energy, with a 200% increase within the last five years. The most productive journal, institution, and country in this subject have been Energy Policy, University of Cape Town, and South Africa, respectively. Research hotspots under different study themes also revealed that ‘solar energy,’ ‘CO2 emissions,’ and ‘rural electrification’ are hot issues that have gained maximum attention over the years. Results from the current study provide a paradigm for the development of Africa’s renewable energy sector.