Mapping Ghana’s Renewable Energy Research Landscape: A Bibliometric Insight into Trends, Progress, and Policy Relevance for Sustainable Development

Abstract

Despite its abundant renewable energy resources, Ghana faces energy access and sustainability challenges. Although policy interventions have been introduced to accelerate renewable energy development, a limited understanding of the academic research underpinning these efforts exists. This study provides the first bibliometric analysis of renewable energy research in Ghana, using 701 Scopus-indexed publications (1996–2024) and applying the Bibliometrix R package and VOSviewer software. The results reveal an annual publication growth rate of 15.46%, with contributions from 2,197 authors across 391 sources. Research output shows high collaboration, averaging 4.84 co-authors per document and a 60.77% international cooperation rate. Thematic evolution indicates a shift from early biofuel-focused studies toward diverse themes such as solar photovoltaics, waste-to-energy, green hydrogen, and machine learning applications. Key emerging frontiers include hydropower-solar hybrid systems, digitalisation, and techno-economic assessments of rural electrification. However, research productivity remains concentrated among a few institutions and researchers, and rural energy access and affordability issues are underexplored. These findings provide actionable insights for policymakers, researchers, and development partners to align future research with Ghana’s national energy agenda and global climate commitments, accelerating a sustainable, inclusive, and low-carbon energy transition. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.