Bibliometric analysis for ocean renewable energy: An comprehensive review for hotspots, frontiers, and emerging trends

The ocean is a huge energy conversion field, and ocean renewable energy (ORE) can provide us with a constant source of energy. Research on ORE collection and utilization has been emerging in recent years, and the number of ORE research results has been increasing. This paper visualizes the trends and current research status of ORE by performing bibliometric analysis using VOSviewer and CiteSpace. The results are analyzed in terms of annual publications, countries, institutions, authors, journals, keywords, topics, and references. The results indicate that current research hotspots include (1) theoretical calculations and simulation modeling, (2) design of ocean renewable energy devices (OREDs), (3) deployment of OREDs and optimization improvements, and (4) evaluation of ORE projects. Wave energy harvesting applications, offshore wind energy harvesting applications, design and improvement of triboelectric nanogenerator, and artificial reefs or islands are the frontiers of research in the field of ORE. With the development of energy conversion technologies, the future of ocean power generation will have a promising and attractive prospect. The results of the study provide a comprehensive overview of the evolution of research hotspots in this field and can help those researchers willing to work in this research area to quickly understand the research frontiers and the general situation. • Retrieved 3231 articles published over 10 years in the WOS core collection database. • Highlight top contributors, organizations, hot spots and research frontiers. • Classify key research topics and determine the knowledge structure related to marine renewable energy. • Looking for research frontiers and hotspots of marine renewable energy. • Evaluate research in this area and identify potential or possible future research areas.