Circular Economy and Renewable Energies: a bibliometric analysis of international literature

Abstract

The linear model of production and consumption harms the environment and accelerates the scarcity of natural resources. In contrast, the Circular Economy (EC) emerges as a model that aims to keep products, components, and materials at their highest level of usefulness and value at all times. This research seeks to answer the following problem question: how does international literature approach the relationship between Renewable Energies and Circular Economy in an industrial context? The general objective is: to identify, in the international literature, how the terms Renewable Energy and Circular Economy are related in the industrial context. The applied methodology consisted of a systematic review of the literature associated with bibliometrics in the Scopus and Web of Science databases, applying the terms: “renewabl * energ *” AND “circular economy” AND “industr *”. Bibliometric indicators were analyzed with the aid of the MINITAB and VOSviewer softwares. From the final sample of 88 articles, the countries that stood out the most in the number of publications were Italy, followed by China, Germany, and the United Kingdom. It was noted that the years with the largest number of publications were 2018, 2019, and 2020, with the first publication appearing in 2012. Among the main results, it was found that the researches, in its majority, are case studies that diagnose a reality and propose efficient solutions with the production processes and the reduction of environmental impacts. Finally, it was concluded that the Circular Economy is a progressive model of production and consumption, which respects the limitation of natural resources while meeting human needs.