Equity-Oriented Decision-Making for Renewable Energy Investments

Renewable energy investment evaluation continues to rely predominantly on techno-economic and environmental criteria, while equity-related considerations remain weakly embedded within formal decision-support frameworks. Although recent research increasingly acknowledges social impacts, spatial constraints, policy uncertainty, and financing structures, these dimensions are rarely integrated in a systematic and operational manner into investment appraisal. This paper addresses this gap by advancing an equity-oriented conceptual framework for renewable energy investment evaluation. Using an integrative literature review combined with thematic analysis, the study synthesises insights from techno-economic assessment, multi-criteria decision-making, energy justice scholarship, and equity-focused modelling studies. The analysis demonstrates that existing evaluation approaches inadequately capture distributional impacts, accessibility constraints, differentiated vulnerability, and equity-adjusted risk. In response, the proposed framework systematises these equity dimensions and embeds them directly into the core logic of investment evaluation alongside conventional criteria. By consolidating fragmented research insights into a coherent evaluative structure, the study contributes to the literature by clarifying how equity can be operationalised within renewable energy investment decision-making. The framework provides a foundation for future empirical applications and supports more socially responsive and analytically robust investment evaluation.