Edinburgh Napier University

  Energy crises, increasing electricity prices, and having no access to the grid electricity are the leading issues in developing countries of Asia, the Middle East, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Developing hybrid renewable energy systems in off-grid or grid-connected modes is the best way to overcome developing countries' economic and energy crises. However, the development of hybrid renewable energy systems faces severe technical and related economic challenges. This article provides an updated and comprehensive resource and economic overview of developed hybrid renewable energy systems in different locations in these aforementioned regions. The resource assessment shows that for economical hybrid energy system the average annual wind speed and average annual solar radiation should be 5 m/s and 5 KWh/m^2 respectively. This paper also provides a big picture of renewable energy impacts, challenges in the architecture of hybrid systems, and key organizations working in this domain in the developing regions. According to our review, hybrid optimization model for electric renewable, particle swarm optimization and genetic algorithm are frequently used tools for the optimization and sizing of hybrid energy systems. The map of hybrid renewable energy system research in developing regions is not available. Our study gives energy scenario and clear map of hybrid energy in developing regions of the world. The scientometric review of 2000 bibliographic data obtained from the Scopus database to perform co-author and co-occurrence analysis in this study. The data is used to trace the research pattern and thus to identify the most impactful authors, institutions, and countries in the hybrid renewable energy systems domain to obtain recommendations and make policies for the future uninterrupted and carbon dioxide emission free energy systems. The results of scientometric analysis shows that the Wang X. is the most prolific author, while India and Tanta University are the most productive country and institution in this domain. The scientometric analysis result will be beneficial in determining the future research directions in the hybrid renewable energy systems field.