Advances in solar energy towards efficient and sustainable energy

Abstract

Conventional energy resources are not climate sustainable. Currently, engineers and scientists are looking for sustainable energy solutions influenced by climate change. A wide variety of sustainable natural energy resources are available, but they require technical solutions for their implementation. The general trend in energy research is based on renewable resources, amongst which solar energy stands out, being the most mature and widely accepted. In this paper, the current state of the sustainable energy system has been analysed. The main purpose is to provide additional context to assess future scenarios. The study of past contributions allows sustainability planning and increasing the welfare of future society. The aim is to highlight global trends in research on sustainable solar energy from 1995 to 2020 through a bibliometric analysis of 4260 publications. According to their linkages, the analysed articles are distributed in nine clusters: Sustainability assessment, Sustainable energy solutions, Environmental payback time analysis, Sustainability of solar energy in different scenarios, Environmental sustainability, Solar energy applications, Sustainable energy optimisation, Energy transition and Energy and sustainable scenarios. The most repeated keywords are Sustainability, Renewable energy, and Solar energy. Energy research and the exploration of new renewable solar resources are still necessary to meet sustainable energy’s future challenges.