The use of renewable energy sources in microgrids is broad and fragmented owing to the contributions of various approaches and disciplines. A bibliometric review contributes to a critical and comprehensive understanding of this field. The SciMAT software was used to determine the evolution of this important field of research. To achieve this, 842 research articles were collected from the Scopus database for 2001-2021. Recently, the thematic interest of researchers has focused on the concepts of life-cycle analyses of solar and wind energy systems and the efficiency of photovoltaic systems as a method of evaluating renewable energy sources. The results illustrate the relevance of renewable energy sources with a gradual increase in the number of studies published in international journals since 2010. The period overlay plots present several new and transient topics between sub-periods; it is a research field that undergoes constant evolution and has not yet reached a stage of scientific maturity.