A comprehensive review of two decades of research on agrivoltaics, a promising new method for electricity and food production

An agrivoltaic system combines energy production and agricultural crops in one location, addressing the growing demand for sustainable and cost-effective energy sources. The objectives of this bibliometric analysis are to identify knowledge gaps, emphasize important contributions, and highlight trends in agrivoltaic research. It is expected to support creative research in agriculture and sustainable energy, foster collaborations, and inform decision-making. This study thus employed the systematic, bibliometric and content analysis review approach to analyse research works published on the topic during the last two decades. Data from the Scopus database was used for the qualitative and quantitative analysis using the Biblioshiny package in R and VOSviewer software. The study analysed 155 documents, revealing an 18.21% annual growth in research on agrivoltaics. The most frequently used keyword was agrivoltaics, highlighting its potential for sustainability and sustainable land use. Research on the topic is found to be evolving from small-scale irrigation power generation to large-scale electricity generation, emphasizing dual land use for energy and food production. North Carolina State University and Chinese institutions are leading in agrivoltaics research. The study concluded with some identified research gaps that should be examined going into the future.