Navigating the energy transition: A review of factors influencing renewable energy investments

Our findings indicate that economic factors, particularly profitability and financial risk, remain the necessary drivers of RE investments, while political factors significantly shape the regulatory framework, either facilitating or constraining RE development. Although environmental, social, and technological factors are supporting factors in direct investment decisions, they influence economic considerations and long-term market stability.

By offering a contemporary and dynamic assessment of RE investment factors, this study provides 13 key takeaways for policymakers, investors, and researchers, ensuring that energy transition strategies are grounded in up-to-date realities rather than past assumptions. (2025-12-03) Acknowledgements: Original publication supported by PayPal and the Luxembourg National Research Fund FNR (P17/IS/13342933/PayPal-FNR/Chair in DFS/Gilbert Fridgen).

This research was funded in whole, or in part, by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR), grant reference NCER25/SR/18324647. For the purpose of open access, and in fulfillment of the obligations arising from the grant agreement, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission.