The adoption of renewable energy (RE) in rural communities is a complex problem, determined by economic, technological, institutional, and so-cio-cultural factors that most studies analyze separately, not as an integrated system. In the present paper, a scoping review methodology was used, based on PRISMA-ScR guidelines and on a pre-registered OSF protocol. 294 records were retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection for 2000–2025; after exclusion filters, 260 records were screened, 82 full texts assessed, and 49 articles were included in the final corpus. The bibliometric analysis was conducted using Bibliometrix/Biblioshiny and completed through dual-independent thematic coding (Cohen’s κ = 0.82). The results have shown four adoption-factor clusters: (1) economic and financial bar-riers; (2) technological and infrastructural gaps; (3) institutional and policy fragmentation; (4) socio-cultural resistance. Three emergent research fronts, algae-based biofuels, digital rural microgrids, and participatory governance, remain weakly connected to the core network. The main contribution is an integrated four-dimensional framework, which organizes adoption as a system and proposes policy levers with key performance indicators. The use of a single database is an important limitation. Future research should ex-tend coverage to Scopus, add longitudinal indicators, and integrate gender and climate-resilience perspectives
Camelia Cazoni (Thu,) studied this question.