An Analysis of Research Trends and Knowledge Structure in the Field of Affordable and Clean Energy

INTRODUCTION: Energy is the foundation of all human endeavors and is intertwined with human progress. The access to sustainable energy services is a fundamental requirement for sustainable development, encompassing poverty eradication, food security, health, well-being, and education quality. Affordable and clean energy is explicitly recognized as one of the 17 sustainable development goals. OBJECTIVE: to analyse research trends and the knowledge structure in the field of affordable and clean energy. METHODS: This study was based on a descriptive bibliometric analysis of SDGs 7 "Affordable and Clean Energy". The Scopus database was used as a source of information, between 2012 and 2021. RESULTS: The trend of documents on Affordable and Clean Energy reveals a steady increase in the number of published papers related to this topic, indicating a growing interest and activity in researching and disseminating information about sustainable energy. It is observed that international collaboration accounts for 21.8% of the analyzed documents, indicating a significant involvement of researchers from different countries. Engineering emerges as the leading subject area with 591,146 scholarly outputs, indicating a strong focus on technological advancements and innovation. CONCLUSIONS: Scientific production in the field of affordable and clean energy has experienced steady growth, reflecting an increasing interest in research and development of sustainable energy solutions. However, it is important to recognize that this increase in the number of published papers has not translated into greater impact and recognition in the scientific community. Although more knowledge is being generated, its influence seems to be diminishing. Countries that participate in joint research obtain a higher number of citations, indicating the importance of establishing international linkages to maximize the visibility and impact of research. © 2022 Sánchez Castillo et al., licensed to EAI. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, which permits copying, redistributing, remixing, transformation, and building upon the material in any medium so long as the original work is properly cited.