United in Green: A Bibliometric Exploration of Renewable Energy Communities

Abstract

In recent years, the domain of renewable energy communities has experienced dynamic growth, spurred by European Union (EU) legislation that became law for all 27 Member States in June 2021. This legislative framework intensified research efforts aimed at discovering new methods for sustainable energy sources through the development of individual and collective energy communities. Each EU country has implemented distinct frameworks for renewable energy communities, leading to varied legislative approaches. This has spurred exponential investment, facilitating the deployment of photovoltaic and battery energy storage systems, offering significant economic and environmental benefits to community members. Against this backdrop, the purpose of this analysis is to investigate academic publications related to renewable energy communities. Using a dataset extracted from the ISI Web of Science database, this study employs a bibliometric approach to identify the main authors, affiliations, and journals and analyze collaboration networks, as well as discern key topics and the countries involved. The analysis reveals an annual growth rate of 42.82%. Through thematic maps, WordClouds, three-field plots, and a review of the top 10 globally cited documents, this study provides a comprehensive perspective on the evolving domain of renewable energy communities.