METHODOLOGICAL FRAGMENTATION OF RES STUDIES: A COMPREHENSIVE SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK
Abstract
The article critically analyses the methodological fragmentation of contemporary renewable energy sources (RES) research. It is shown that existing approaches tend to focus on a single aspect — technological, economic, or environmental — without accounting for systemic interconnections. Based on a literature review, three systemic shortcomings are identified: incompleteness of life cycle assessment (dominance of the operational phase, ignoring raw material extraction and disposal); fragmentation in accounting for environmental, economic, and technological factors (limitation to direct CO₂ emissions, underestimation of indirect effects and market dynamics); and insufficient integration of quantitative and qualitative methods (social and qualitative environmental changes remain outside the framework). The problem of ignoring cross-sectoral effects, in particular the interaction of RES with agricultural land use, is considered separately; the potential of agrivoltaics to reduce land-use conflicts and increase total productivity is shown, including increased soil moisture and crop yields. An interdisciplinary framework is proposed that synthesises life cycle assessment (LCA), systems analysis, and qualitative methods. The framework includes four blocks — technological, environmental, economic, and social-landscape; for agrivoltaic projects, additional indicators of water efficiency, total income per hectare, and Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) are provided. Indicators are normalised and aggregated into an integral sustainability index; Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) can be used to validate the economic block. The scientific novelty lies in specific procedures for linking quantitative and qualitative data, as well as in the emphasis on adaptation to regional conditions. The framework can be used to support regional energy strategy development, including under conditions of limited data and high importance of local factors, for comparing different types of RES and hybrid schemes.