Technological, economic, institutional, and psychosocial aspects of the transition to renewable energies: A critical literature review of a multidimensional process.

• The transition to renewable energies is a multidimensional process. • Experience curves illustrate the need for an initial market to reduce costs. • Regulatory measures and economic instruments are necessary in the initial stages. • Legal and institutional framework is of great importance in the transition process. • Social acceptance is a very prominent factor in the renewable energy diffusion process. Fossil fuels are dominating the market and presenting a serious peril to the climate and the ecosystem. Hence, achieving sustainable development requires the development of new sources of energy that are clean and non-exhaustible. However, the transition to green energies is a gradual, complicated, and onerous proceeding that encompasses multiple stakeholders and dimensions. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze how the transition to renewable energies was addressed in the literature in order to identify all aspects and features of this complicated process. This analysis will be of great interest by allowing the comprehension and the concretization of such a complicated and multi-dimensional process. Although technical factors are prominent, the economic, institutional, social, and even psychological aspects of the transition to renewable energies should not be neglected. All these aspects are at the heart of environmental economics, institutional economics, and the psychosocial approach which will be detailed in the current review paper. We will present a different and new classification that encompasses almost all existing studies. In fact, we will classify research studies into five categories: the experience curve approach, the innovation diffusion approach, the environmental economics approach, the institutional economics approach, and the psychosocial approach. Moreover, we will try to analyze in-depth the advantages and limitations of each approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]