ABSTRACT
A transition to sustainable energy will require not only technological progress and behavioral change but also policy innovation. While research on energy transitions has generated an extensive literature, the extent to which it has used public policy theories and the notion of policy innovation remain unclear. This study analyzes over 8,000 publications on energy transitions or energy in sustainability transitions through a bibliometric review and computational text analysis to create an overview of the scholarship and map the use of concepts and theories of public policy in it. We find that (1) scientific activity in the research area is largely Europe-centric with limited involvement of institutions in the Global South; (2) though the importance of public policy is highlighted frequently in the research, the policy itself is analyzed only occasionally; and (3) theories on policy innovation are hardly used to understand the speed, spread, or outcomes of the transitions. We conclude that the value of policy studies for the research area remains untapped and call for greater synthesis between the two to create policy-relevant knowledge on the energy transitions.
