Production, consumption and research on solar energy: The Spanish and German case

Elias Sanz-Casado, Maria Luisa Lascurain-Sánchez, Antonio Eleazar Serrano-Lopez, Birger Larsen, Peter Ingwersen*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

28 Citations (Scopus)
1121 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

An analysis of scientific publications on solar energy was conducted to determine whether public interest in the subject is mirrored by more intense research in the area. To this end, the research published by Spain and Germany, the two EU countries with the highest installed photovoltaic capacity, was analyzed based on Web of Science data. The results show that: solar output has risen substantially; solar research has a greater impact (measured in terms of citations) than publications on other renewables such as wind power; scientific production on solar energy is high in Germany and Spain, which together account for 51% of the total in the EU-27; the pattern of topics researched in the two countries is very similar; and their international collaboration is more intense than the world average and higher than in countries such as the USA, China or Japan. Collaboration between them is likewise intense. The main conclusion is the divergence in Germany and Spain between solar energy demand/output growth, being exponential, and the growth of research papers on the subject, which is linear
Original languageEnglish
JournalRenewable Energy
Volume68
Pages (from-to)733-744
Number of pages12
ISSN0960-1481
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2014

Keywords

  • Bibliometric analysis
  • Renewable energy
  • Solar energy
  • Spain
  • Germany

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