Managing Supply Chain Activities in the Field of Energy Production Focusing on Renewables

Abstract

Nowadays, the research community focuses on sustainability studies that are at the severe phase in the transformation towards a sustainable world. In addition, reducing the human impact on the environment requires a shift from traditional energy to renewables, which have increased significantly during recent decades as sustainable energy sources. Hence, this study assesses renewable energy sources and their related production phases from a supply chain management perception, screening and reviewing the integration between the supply chain management within the area of energy production focusing on renewable energy resources. The study executes a systematic review of English literature published on international scientific databases, focusing on the previous decade 2010–2020, to congregate the recently updated knowledge related to such research area. Thus, this study provides an authentic review of the literature that points to the relationship between supply chain operations and the area of renewable energy manufacturing from another side. Several literature reviews have been available concentrating on particular areas of managing renewable energy supply chains; however, no review has highlighted the practices of supply chain processes in energy production, focusing on renewables. The searching process relies on the published works that focus on such an area to be analyzed and characterized based on different methodologies they propose; thus, prospective and future research interests are delineated.

1. Introduction

Renewable Energy (RE) has been a vital concern in the clean economy by decreasing the usage of polluted energy (e.g., fossil energy) because of its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. RE sources such as solar, wind, and tidal power are environmentally friendly by nature [2,7,8,9,10] and cheaper energy production [11,12]. Therefore, RE sources are evolving options to fulfill the energy future demand [8,13] because they are renewed with a continuous cycle [14]. RE as reasonable resources has grown extensively in the last 30 years [15], as governments and worldwide companies extensively unrestricted their goals to boost the development of RE production [16]. For example, a cooperative work has been prepared to discover several methods in which wind energy will offer 20% of U.S. electrical power by 2030; wind power projects conducted in China aim to transfer 15% of its total energy consumption in 2020 by operating 24 offshore wind projects with a capacity of 6.7 GW [17,18]; and leading IT companies, such as Apple, Google, and Facebook are pushing noteworthy plans to run their organizations with a growing percentage of RE resources [11].

P. Venturi, et al. (1999) [19] was the first published work representing the relation between the Supply Chain (SC) and RE production unintentionally, as the paper analyzed the production chains of woody energy crops. From that time, the importance of Supply Chain Management (SCM) in the RE sector has attracted the attention of the public, private actors, and academic communities, with the knowledge that an effective SC for the RE deployment can extensively support power sector expansion [20]. Nonetheless, the SC systems for the RE deployment are still challenging with regard to the capital investment, energy conversion costs, logistics networks, geographical constraints, and lack of economies of scale [9,21]. Besides, with reference to the growth of environmental responsiveness in terms of the supply chain concepts, new trends initiated in the literature explicitly include the Green Supply Chain (GSC), the Sustainable Supply Chain (SSC), and the circular supply chain [22,23,24]. Concepts such as the SSC and the sustainability implications of the GSC have an influential role in the RE sector, offering weighty sustenance for the expansion of the power sector and making it easy for organizations to simply approve these practices [25,26]. However, the challenges of energy SCM show a discrepancy in the literature concerning energy production technologies, especially renewables.

Therefore, the SCM of energy sectors and their infrastructures clarifies energy resources’ availability and their costs, which might blaze a trail for further saleability of RE resources [27,28]. Nevertheless, higher conversion costs, limited sites, environmental influences, etc., pose obstacles to such development [9]. Therefore, the significant expansion of renewable energies has challenges from a SCM side; also, the integration between RE and the SC has a fundamental part in the economic and social improvements [29], so the relation between them is one of the imperative research topics. As a result, the literature on logistics and supply chain practices in the renewable energy context has been amalgamated with transportation, forecasting, network optimization, and inventory management [1].

The primary purpose of this review is to offer an incorporated decisive analysis and synthesis of the literature that provides a conceptual outline for the interrelation between SCM and its related activities in the RE production field. Consequently, this paper systematically investigates the variety of know-how and options by examining the literature on SCM, which can be exploited to utilize the available RE resources and motivate how supply chain views may boost the RE production expansion and identify a specific practical involvement between supply chain and RE production. In addition, researchers may use this study to catch a general synopsis of supply chain contributions in RE production previously shown with various methodologies and the scientific gaps existing in the published works.

Hence, this research inscribes the subsequent research questions: (i) What is the recent state-of-art related to SCM and RE production? and (ii) What are the prospective scopes in SC activities corresponding to the RE production? Thus, the two research questions are explored by precisely revising the relevant publications in different scientific databases are the leading research goal, which could be accomplished based on the systematic review conducted on the published literature in the specified research area, focusing on the period from 2010 to 2020 in order to encompass the most updated knowledge.

The arrangement of the remaining review sections is as follows: Section 2 pinpoints the relation between SCM and RE production; Section 3 outlines the approach used to conduct this study; Section 4 clarifies the analysis and results of the reviewed literature. Meanwhile, the limitations of this study and future scopes for the prospective works of this research discipline are specified in Section 5, followed by the practical and managerial implications in Section 6; then, the conclusion and future research prospectives are delineated in the last section. In the end, the appendices are separated into (A) demonstrates the distribution of literature according to the covered regions studied, and (B) comes up with the classification of the literature according to their research perspectives.

2. SCM and RE Production

The field of SCM expands to various interdisciplinary ranges: economics, business, organizational science, industrial psychology, and operations research. As a result, from one side, the concerns in SCM regarding knowledge remain to enshrine attention from an assortment of study areas. On the other hand, supply chain administrators have recognized the incorporation of environmental, economic, and social aspects; thus, they are concerned about green and supply chain management sustainability [29]. Businesses initially use SCM to help regulate the chains of events related to both products or services [30]. Hence, from an energy production perspective, SCM presents a combination of principles that qualify active administration of flow between the place of usage (transference to the end clients) and the location of raw materials [27].

There are various approaches and methodologies in the published studies revealed that the SC in RE fields has a significant role in economic growth [29], with the fact, SC for RE deployment shares similarities to other typical supply chain systems [9]; therefore, the Renewable Energy Supply Chain (RESC) term is created, which is defined as “the transformation of raw energy into usable energy and involves an effective set of management principles from the acquisition of energy resources to the consumption of usable energy” [20]. Consequently, the RESC fundamentals include information flows and physical and financial streams [9].

The RESC can be divided into three phases: upstream, production, and downstream, mainly consisting of five sub-phases: procurement, generation, transmission, distribution, and demand. These phases cover all processes along the RESC from raw materials until converted into final useful products. Hence, RESC main objectives are to provide a regular and consistent supply of raw materials and promote RE technologies [20,21]. In this sense, SC behavior should consider main elements like suppliers, prospective locations, prospective consumers, and the capacities of service and their areas from the RE facilities to the end-users [9].

The principles of SCM can handle the challenges of energy production generally via two groups: organizational performance and operational performance [27]. SCM is imperative for two specific areas, (i) Characterizing the organization that shapes the energy production supply chain sectors, managers must handle the geographical distribution of minor actors and large organizations from the place of raw materials to the site of usage, recognizing demand diversity, and to offer a tactic for management of buyer-supplier interactions. (ii) Sharing the features of perishable goods for numerous lower-valued energy carriers, expressly the raw materials, especially in biomass. Thus, practices have to be designed around operational performance (sizing, timing, eco-efficiency, and capacity utilization) [31]. Hence, this review is conducted to discover how scholars handle such previous aspects, especially for renewable energy deployment.

3. Methodology

3.1. Literature Refinement

The approach used to conduct the review has multiple procedures; firstly, the manual search was employed to exclude word search restrictions that could avoid pertinent publications. Then, the search and review criteria were conducted on two separate topics, which are supply chain management and energy production, considering the renewable energy supply chain. Hence, all relevant keywords related to the specified topics wereidentified according to synonyms and main concepts to ensure the search is comprehensive. Therefore, keywords such as “logistics”, “supply chain”, “energy production”, and “renewable energy production” were used during the publications gathering and filtering processes. The search strategy combines all concepts into a singular search, as the search protocol used was “supply chain” OR logistics of “energy production” OR “renewable energy production”. Finally, the search criteria depended on titles, abstracts, keywords, highlights, and subject terms.

The Egyptian Knowledge Bank (EKB) has facilitated institutional access to the full texts of the searched papers from various data sources that contain the most popular scientific databanks like Web of Science (WoS), Scopus, Google Scholar, as well as ProQuest. Additionally, the integral software is used to manage the citation of references. The search was restricted to articles in English from 2010 until the end of 2020 and most closely related to aspects for a good grasp of renewable energy production and the supply chain systems. The following

Table 1. The aggregated publications according to their scanned scientific databases.

Scientific Databases	No. of Publications
Google Scholar	131
Scopus	91
ProQuest	93
Web of Science	63
Total	378

and

Table 2. The aggregated publications without repetition.

378	No. of Publications Repeated in One or More Scientific Databases				No. of Publications without Repetition
	16	2	5	25
Aggregate publications from all databases	Google Scholar + Scopus + Web of Science	Google Scholar + Scopus	Google Scholar + Web of Science	Scopus + Web of Science	330

represent the narrowing process and ignore the repetition; hence this study focused on 330 filtered publications out of 378 resulting from the searching processes.

The coding criteria have been established to assess the content of the scientific works refined by searching on the key concepts identified instead of looking only at the actual words, which a computer algorithm cannot as yet accomplish. It involves coding for inclusion or exclusion that makes a judgment based on the title and abstract whether the study under consideration fits the predetermined inclusion criteria; therefore, they should be retained or discarded from further analysis. Hence, the authors manually executed the exclusion phase by reading each paper abstract to determine and assess its quality and to what extent the publication was relevant to the intended criteria. Figure 1 explains the dataset processing phases that consist of three main phases followed in conducting this study that started with the inclusion phase and ended with the analysis phase.

As a result, the study focused on 272 works out of 330, including 136 peer-reviewed scientific papers, 81 postgraduate dissertations, mainly Ph.D. theses, 37 conference papers, 13 book chapters, and 5 technical articles, as demonstrated in Figure 2. Hence, the research process includes the maximum number of relevant publications that explain the relation between RE production and the supply chain systems from one side and the importance of well concurrence of RESC systems from the other side. In addition, the review shows a portentous increase in recent years, as illustrated in Figure 3.

3.2. Literature Ramification

Both authors discussed the filtered publications and traced the citations in the 272 papers to find additional references to other studies. However, no further relevant publications were recognized [32]. Accordingly, the authors started combining and analyzing the acceded publications concerning their main ideas, findings, and results in order to investigate main research schemes and determine the scientific gap in such a research field. For the purposes of simplifying the analysis, the acceded publications were categorized according to the types of RE discussed. The adjective systematic review clarifies 8 specific research areas related to the relationship between RE productions and SCM according to the energy types, which could be divided into two main categories, as presented and sorted in Figure 4.

As shown in Figure 5, The first category is the literature that examined the relationship between one or more supply chain and logistics activities (i.e., transportation, inventory management, storage systems, etc.) with one of the RE production fields, such as the 186 works for bioenergy, 23 for wind, 12 for solar, and six for hydrogen energy. Category one also involves the studies discussing the general concepts and frameworks that could be applied to any kind of renewable energy application without determining a specific type, defined as Renewables. The second category is the publications that mix two types or more of renewable energies designated as Hybrid Renewable Energy System (HRES), for example, the eight studies that combined wind and solar power and their relation to supply chain and logistics activities.

The regions covered by published literature as they detached into six defined specific regions, which are explained by countries in Appendix A. In addition, these regions are illustrated in Figure 6 with the numbers of published works that cover reviewed research area in this paper. Nevertheless, some kinds of literature their case study or model applied to several countries around the world, which is defined as Worldwide. Additionally, most of the literature offered general theories or models that could be applied generally in the renewable energy supply chain field without determining a specific region or country to apply, which is shown as Not Specified.

Finally, Figure 7 expresses the top scientific journals and their impact factor according to the numeral works available in the reviewed research area in this paper. It can be perceived that several published works in this paper have been published in the highly impacted factor journals, which prospectively might acquire additional citations in the near future.

4. The Analysis and Results

The authors revised the literature again by carefully reading the main bodies of the publications to determine to what extent the publications are relevant to the research area intended to be reviewed. Hence, the two categories are analyzed according to the main topics covered within a specific research area extracted from the two tables in Appendix B, demonstrating the organization of literature depending on relevance. Simultaneously, the authors anatomize the literature in these tables to explain the studies organization according to the aim or purposes of the study, the method or approach followed, the geographical area covered, the main finding and results, and how they regulate the relationship between the renewable energy production and supply chain.

4.1. Bio-Energy and Supply Chain (Stream 1—Category 1)

Regarding the relationship between bioenergy production and the SCM, there are 186 published works diversified between research papers, theses, conference papers, and book chapters extracted from the research process. However,

Table 3. The classification of the key areas that connect bio-energy production and SCM and logistics activities.

Published Works	The Main Research Areas Covered
	Managing the Supply Chain of Biomass Products	Supply Chain Simulation of Biomass	Biomass Transportation Problems	The Smart Logistics System for Biomass Production
Zhang, X., et al. (2020) [28]		✓
Saghaei, M., et al. (2020) [33]		✓
Ramos-Hernández, R., et al. (2020) [7]		✓
Rahemi, H., et al. (2020) [34]	✓
Perić, M., et al. (2020) [35]	✓
Nunes, L., et al. (2020) [36]	✓
Murele, O.C., et al. (2020) [37]	✓
Lo, S.L.Y., et al. (2020) [38]	✓
Li, Y., et al. (2020) [16]	✓
Kc, R., et al. (2020) [39]			✓
Kang, S., et al. (2020) [40]		✓
Gilani, H., et al. (2020) [41]		✓
Garofalo, P., et al. (2020) [42]	✓
Fattahi, M., et al. (2020) [43]		✓
Esmaeili, S.A.H., et al. (2020) [44]	✓
Durmaz, Y.G. and B. Bilgen (2020) [45]			✓
Aziz, N.I.H.A., et al. (2020) [46]	✓
Aseffe, J.A.M., et al. (2020) [47]	✓
Sarker, B.R., et al. (2019) [48]		✓
Sadeghi, J. and K.R. Haapala (2019) [49]	✓
Nugroho, Y.K. and L. Zhu (2019) [50]	✓
Ling, W.C., et al. (2019) [51]	✓
Leong, H., et al. (2019) [52]	✓
Gumte, K.M. and K. Mitra (2019) [53]	✓
Díaz-Trujillo, L.A. and F. Nápoles-Rivera (2019) [54]	✓
Agustina, F., et al. (2019) [55]	✓
Bragado, M.V., D. Broz, and R. Dondo (2019) [56]	✓
Zahraee, S.M., et al. (2019) [57]		✓
Acuna, M., et al. (2019) [58]				✓
Yokoi, Y., et al. (2018) [59]	✓
Svanberg, M., et al. (2018) [60]	✓
Karimi, H. (2018) [61]	✓
Gebresenbet, G., et al. (2018) [62]				✓
Roni, M.S., et al. (2017) [63]	✓
Poudel, S.R. (2017) [64]	✓
Chavez, H., et al. (2017) [65]		✓
Yue, D. (2016) [66]	✓
Lin, T., et al. (2016) [67]			✓
Korpinen, O.J., et al. (2016) [68]			✓
Balaman, Ş.Y. and H. Selim (2016) [69]	✓
Hong, B.H. and H.L. Lam (2015) [70]	✓
Hartley, D.S. (2014) [71]	✓
Balaman, Ş.Y. and H. Selim (2014) [72]	✓
Svanberg, M. and Á. Halldórsson (2013) [73]	✓
Sharma, B., et al. (2013) [74]	✓
Martinez-Kawas, A. (2013) [75]		✓
Kazemzadeh, N. and G. Hu (2013) [76]	✓
Karttunen, K., et al. (2012) [77]			✓
Tahvanainen, T. and P. Anttila (2011) [78]			✓
Palander, T. (2011) [79]	✓
Gold, S. and S. Seuring (2011) [80]	✓
Dunnett, A. (2011) [81]	✓
Bowling, I.M., et al. (2011) [82]		✓
Velazquez-Marti, B. and E. Fernandez-Gonzalez (2010) [83]	✓
Van Dyken, S., et al. (2010) [84]	✓
Acharya, A.M. (2010) [85]	✓

, extracted from the information provided in Appendix B, focuses on the most relevant publications linking bio-energy production with supply chain and logistics activities, reflecting many topics covered in this area. As shown in Figure 8, Firstly, managing the supply chain of biomass products which has the highest excessive coverage; secondly, biomass transportation problems and how to overcome them; thirdly, the supply chain simulation of biomass; and finally, intelligent logistics system for biomass production, which remains in its initial stage as research started from 2018.

4.2. Renewables and Supply Chain (Stream 2—Category 1)

As summarized in

Table 4. The key areas connect between renewables production in general and supply chain and logistics activities.

Published Works	The Main Research Areas Covered
	Managing Renewable Energy Supply Chain	Planning the Renewable Energy System	Using Renewable Energy in Logistics Activities to be Green Logistics Operations
Kouvelis, P., et al. (2020) [86]	✓
Zhao, W., et al. (2019) [87]	✓
Azevedo, S.G., et al. (2019) [6]	✓
Fontes, C.H.d.O. and F.G.M. Freires (2018) [1]			✓
Khan, S.A.R., et al. (2018) [88]			✓
Yu, Z., H. Golpîra, and S. Khan (2018) [89]	✓
Badea, A., et al. (2016) [90]	✓
Arent, D., et al. (2014) [3]	✓
Pietrosemoli, L. and C.R. Monroy (2013) [91]		✓
Hu, Y. and H. Cheng (2013) [5]		✓
Cucchiella, F. and I. D’Adamo (2013) [29]	✓
Aslani, A. and A. Mohaghar (2013) [92]		✓
Wee, H.-M., et al. (2012) [9]	✓
Delucchi, M.A. and M.Z. Jacobson (2011) [93]	✓
Lam, H.L., et al. (2010) [94]	✓

and Figure 9, there is an ultimate research direction on joining the supply chain activities through RE in general. The first research aspect includes a large number of publications that discuss the SCM that might be generally experimented within any field of RE. The second discipline concentrates on planning a renewable energy system. Then, the final research area focused on renewable energy usage in operating logistics activities to be green.

4.3. Wind Energy and Supply Chain (Stream 3—Category 1)

Table 5. The classification of the key areas that connect wind energy production and supply chain and logistics activities.

Published Works	The Main Research Areas Covered
	Supply Chain and Logistics of Wind Energy	Supply Chain Simulation of Wind Farms	Supply Chain in the Installation of Wind Projects	Logistics and Supply Chain Management for Maintenance of Wind Farms
Herrera, M.M., et al. (2020) [95]		✓
Irawan, C.A., et al. (2018) [96]			✓
Poulsen, T. and R. Lema (2017) [97]	✓
Shafiee, M. (2015) [98]				✓
Vojdani, N. and F. Lootz (2012) [99]	✓
Lange, K., et al. (2012) [100]		✓
Scholz-Reiter, B., et al. (2010) [101]	✓

shows the state-of-art between supply chain and logistics activities with wind farms operations. According to the literature published, the distribution of works illustrated in Figure 10 is divided into the first area covered was supply chain and logistics of wind energy production and supply chain simulation of wind farms approximately presents half of the published works, and the rest of the results were divided equally between two areas; (i) supply chain activities that related to the installation phases of wind farms projects, and (ii) supply chain activities for the purpose of maintaining the wind farms.

4.4. Solar Energy and Supply Chain (Stream 4—Category 1)

The analysis of the publications covered the solar energy stream, shown in Appendix B,

Table A7. The most relevant published works that include one type of renewable energy production and supply chain and logistics published after 2010 (category 1).

Reference	Year	The General Purpose of the Study	Method/Approach	Geographical Area (if Any)	The Main Findings/Results of the Study
Bioenergy
[28]	2020	It aims to form data-oriented modeling to improve SCM related to forest and biomass.	Data-oriented modeling	None	The main results of this study revealed that promising prospects for data-driven tools are big data technologies.
[33]	2020	Offers solutions to reduce the electricity production costs from woody biomass.	Mixed-integer non-linear programming	USA	It is concluded that the proposed Improved Cross-Entropy achieves better compared to conventional Cross-Entropy by 5.6%.
[7]	2020	Proposes a structure of biomass-based supply chain for power generation.	System Dynamics	None	The results detected the significant variables to biomass supply chain development by a causal diagram.
[34]	2020	It offers a framework that addresses land-use sustainability and optimal bioethanol supply chain development.	Mixed-integer linear programming	Iran	The main results of this study concluded that the planned integrated land planning-network design problems for bioethanol supply chain planning are solved.
[35]	2020	Focuses on the environmental impact of fuel consumption on several phases of the woody biomass supply chain.	Qualitative approach	Serbia	The results indicated that chipping was the most environmentally exhausting because of the expected practice productivity and high level of diesel consumption in out-of-date types of machinery.
[36]	2020	Reviews all publications on modeling a supply chain for biomass production.	Review	None	The key results of this review revealed that the examination of several different variables must be included for energy supply chain models, also the main disadvantages of its use.
[37]	2020	Presents the biomass network integration for the energy supply chain designs.	Optimization model	None	The main results revealed that a decrease in the emissions cost of up to 4.32% is realizable on the integrated network of 5–8% for the biomass energy supply chain designs.
[38]	2020	Provides a synopsis of the diverse methodologies used for the viability evaluation of biomass-based engineering.	Review	Malaysia	It was found that the mathematical modeling with optimization represents 78% of the literature reviewed.
[16]	2020	Examines the biofuel supply chain from economic performance and an environmental impact point of view.	Mathematical model	USA	The bioethanol production from co-fermentation of cellulosic biomass has been proposed.
[39]	2020	Optimizes the dynamic features of the forest biomass supply chain for environmental sustainability.	Mathematical model	Finland	This study revealed that depending on which kind of biomass and its source, the forest biomass supply chain incarnated GHG emissions from 2.72 to 3.46 kg CO2-eq per MWh.
[40]	2020	It offers a framework for proposing a biofuel supply chain.	Optimization model	USA	The main results revealed that the lowest fuel price of microalgae-based biodiesel is $10.92/gal biodiesel, about three times higher than the recent biodiesel price of $3.51/gal biodiesel.
[41]	2020	Proposes bioethanol production from sugarcane.	Optimization model	Iran	The suggested model encourages more convenient decisions than the deterministic model via average and standard deviation of objective values.
[42]	2020	It aims at assessing the energy crop of sugar beet suitability.	Mathematical model	Italy	This paper describes the multi-composite metric built on ad hoc modules.
[43]	2020	Uses various technologies to develop a supply chain system for biomass power production.	Mathematical model	Iran	The economic viability, the sustainability characteristics, and the required arrangement for the supply chain system design have been proved by computational results.
[44]	2020	Analyses the effects of two different financial inducements inspiring first-generation bioethanol manufacturers to use second-generation biomass.	Linear programming models	USA	The key results of this review concluded that first-generation bioethanol manufacture is more effective than second-generation bioethanol.
[45]	2020	Provides the network of the biomass supply chain using the optimal design and planning.	Mixed-integer linear programming	Turkey	The results concluded that the key control on decisions and financial returns is the maximum distance parameter and purchasing prices.
[46]	2020	It aims at examining the biogas supply chain sustainability.	Conceptual framework	Malaysia	The conceptual framework of biogas production based on environmental sustainability using life cycle assessment has been proposed
[47]	2020	Assesses the environmental performance of the seed-corn supply chain by energy recovery from corncob residues	Experimental analysis	Ecuador	The results determine a technical alternative for converting the corncob supply chain by integrated thermochemical conversion processes.
[48]	2019	Concerns about the cost of a bio-methane gas optimization supply chain.	Mixed-integer mathematical model	None	The model impacts both technological improvement and the economic value of biogas energy production.
[49]	2019	Offers a mathematical optimization model for the costs of logistics and carbon footprints of the RESC.	Mathematical model	None	The model integrates the effect of carbon emissions as a cost parameter in the supply chain of mixed-refinery bio-oil.
[50]	2019	Develops an optimization and planning platform of biofuel _under sustainable supply chain planning_ that unifies biofuel products, operations, and network structures.	Mathematical model	Indonesia	The results indicate an optimal region of the composition ratio between different biomass products.
[51]	2019	Synthesizes a mathematical optimization method for a bio-electricity supply chain grid.	Mathematical model	Malaysia	The result revealed that, at the various seasons of supply and demand diversities, the decision-makers could conclude the possibilities of the upcoming bio-electricity projects.
[52]	2019	Develops a hybrid optimization methodology of Bio-energy Supply Chain Network (BSCN).	Mathematical model	Malaysia	The analysis indicates the optimal power plant methodologies combined heat and power systems.
[53]	2019	Develops an optimization model for optimizing the Net Present Value (NPV) using supply chain networks.	Mixed-integer linear programming	India	The results show the influence of different constraints such as transportation modes, available areas, global fuel price fluctuations, and feedstock availability on the NPV.
[54]	2019	Presents the lowest environmental effect and the optimal profit by a multi-objective optimization method applied to a biogas supply chain.	Optimization model	Mexico	The main results of this study revealed that the model implementation produces key environmental and economic enhancement because of the synchronous growth in the total yearly profit and carbon footprint reduction.
[55]	2019	Conducts a review on detailed modeling of the biomass supply chain designing, planning, and management.	Review	None	This review concluded that it is essential to comprise sustainability and uncertainty research schemes into large-scale systems optimization.
[56]	2019	It offers a model that achieves the optimal profits and picks the uttermost biomass supply chain.	Mathematical model	Argentina	The model indicates that the utmost value was achieved by delivering the available stuff of lower market value, then the rest of higher value stuff but with reasonable logistics costs.
[57]	2019	Assesses the Biomass Supply Chain (BSC) from an environmental sustainability perspective.	Simulation modeling	Malaysia	The results show that for a sustainable improvement of palm biomass, transportation enhancement and production effectiveness should have the priority to work on BSC.
[58]	2019	Reviews all publications on the optimization methodologies for the adequate supply chains managing and controlling forest biomass.	Review	None	Upcoming research should provide cohesive frameworks that achieve the optimal biomass supply chain at the different management levels.
[59]	2018	Analyses and designs a sustainable Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) supply chain.	Case study	Malay Peninsula	The EFB can be competitive when comparing its performances with various fuels.
[60]	2018	Demonstrates the technicality of animal waste (horse manure) for energy conversion supply chains.	Qualitative approach	None	The findings confirmed that the horse manure-to-energy at all phases of the supply chain has discrete features.
[61]	2018	Presents optimization models for bio-power supply chains to help design and administrational sustainability.	Optimization models	None	The proposed models could use by utility enterprises to realize some techniques to advance bio-power production and have enhanced environmental impacts.
[62]	2018	Evolves pruning biomass supply chain using the Smart Logistics System (SLS) applications.	Qualitative approach	None	The SLS enhances the pruning biomass supply chain performance and saves logistics costs.
[63]	2017	Designs a model that captured the balance achieved of supplying bio-fuels between costs, social, and environmental aspects.	Multi-objective hub-and-spoke model	USA	The results help policy-makers to propose procedures that inspire renewables production.
[64]	2017	Analyses two vital problems in the biomass supply chain network field: the pre-disaster planning problem and the inbound feedstock supply uncertainty of bio-energy supply chain networks.	Models and algorithms	USA	The results revealed that the congestion cost plays a substantial part in picking the size and location of the multimodal facilities in bio-energy supply chain networks.
[65]	2017	Proposes a biomass quality and cost optimizing model to ensure conversion technology components.	Simulation-based Multi-Objective Optimization	Canada	The results demonstrate that this method is eligible for discovering an efficient assortment of non-dominated solutions.
[66]	2016	Addresses multi-scale supply chain optimization of biomass-to-bioenergy.	Models and algorithms	None	The proposed models can be reformed to cover more styles of supply chains, and the proposed solution algorithms are general and not limited to specific applications.
[67]	2016	Compares the delivery costs using biomass pre-processing techniques, using two different transport means.	Optimization model	USA	The proposed findings revealed that the transport costs of biomass could pursue the design of coal transport. Transforming biomass to ethanol regionally and transporting it for long distances is economically efficient, the same as the existing grain-based biofuel system.
[68]	2016	Presents dynamic modeling methods for inspecting prospects for cost savings in biomass logistics.	Static and dynamic modeling	Finland	Backhauling and High-capacity-truck Transportation (HCT) are distinctive schemes in biomass transportation by road, creating the best competition in long-distance transport.
[69]	2016	Develops a model for a viable scheme with thermal energy storage of biomass supply chains and District Heating Systems (DHS).	Fuzzy optimization approaches	None	The results revealed that the model could efficiently support decision-makers to design an energy production system effectively.
[70]	2015	Proposes a waste-to-energy supply network using a multiple biomass corridor concept.	Mathematical model	Malaysia	The potential central processing hubs are allocated, and the ideal technics network of the processing hub is specified.
[71]	2014	Examines existing woody bio-energy facilities to explain the drivers of establishing bioenergy projects.	Quantitative approach	USA	The proposed tactic enhances the provincial economy by decreasing energy costs, job opportunities creation, and local improvement.
[72]	2014	Improves an operative model for the supply chain network for biogas production.	Mixed-integer linear programming model	None	The recommended method correctly identifies the supply of biomass and product distribution decisions. Besides, strategic decisions like determining the quantities, sizes, and sites of bio-gas factories and required biomass warehouses.
[73]	2013	Develops a framework for different kinds of customers concerning torrefaction configuration from a supply chain point of view.	Conceptual approach	None	The suggested framework clarifies various components of torrefaction supply and demand.
[74]	2013	Describes energy requirements, energy objects, conversion practices, biofuel feedstocks, and a complete review of the Biomass Supply Chain (BSC).	Review	None	The results provide the starting points for the realization of biomass feedstocks, biofuel production, and a complete study of the BSC planning and modeling.
[75]	2013	Promotes a GIS-based approach for biomass supply chain models.	Mathematical programming model	None	The developed method generates input data to biomass supply chain models by more efficient biomass residue availability data.
[76]	2013	Assigns an optimized scheme for the biofuel refineries supply chain.	Mathematical programming framework	USA	The developed approaches focus on maximizing the predictable profit and the qualification of system risk in various circumstances.
[77]	2012	Analyses the cost of biomass transport operations in Finland’s Lake Saimaa area.	Discrete-event simulation	Finland	According to the simulation study results, the waterway transportation of forest chips had a competitive cost compared with road transportation by trucks after 100–150 km.
[78]	2011	Creates a GIS-based approach to simulate the cost for some supply chains regarding woody biomass.	Mathematical programming model	Finland	The results revealed that the most cost-competitive chain comparing various distances using road and rail transport.
[79]	2011	Considers a multiple objective model for scheduling problems applied to the industrial energy supply chain.	Dynamic multiple objective programming model	Finland	The results illustrate the potential electricity production effects in Finland.
[80]	2011	Presents a literature review of articles that screened the interface of the production of bio-energy and matters of logistics.	Review	None	The results classify the issues and challenges that ensure a balanced and competitively priced feedstock supply for bioenergy facilities.
[81]	2011	Presents a SCM optimization model for the infrastructures of the bio-energy, using a spatially distinct modeling framework.	Optimization model	UK	The innovative dynamic model formulation offered, driving technicality of the spatial-dynamic growth of the bioenergy infrastructures.
[82]	2011	Presents an approach regarding biorefineries production optimization planning and facility location.	Optimization model	None	The model proposes the optimal choice of various patterns considering the specific location configuration, selection of biomass, and processing infrastructures.
[83]	2010	Presents a method to choose the authentic points for the locations of a bioenergy factory.	Mathematical algorithm	Spain	The findings determine the workshop locations that convert biomass into bioenergy for a set of cities. Besides, the workshop location points are considered destinations in the network when the logistics models are concluded.
[84]	2010	Presents the essential elements of various kinds of biomass supply chains.	Linear mixed-integer modeling	None	The results present the supply, node, dryer, and storage schemes for the existing cases in this study.
[85]	2010	Improves efficient biomass-to-biorefinery supply chains for creating biofuels as a feasible alternative.	Optimization models	None	The solution algorithms provided will help researchers efficiently resolve the multi-commodity supply chain plan and management difficulties for biorefineries.
Renewables
[86]	2020	Studies the agreement of long-term service in the supply chain of electricity.	Game theory and the dynamic programming	None	The results show that the utility firm’s optimal conventional capacity decision follows a two-threshold policy, exhibiting a hysteresis phenomenon.
[87]	2019	Investigates policy special effects under various supply chain network arrangements.	Theoretical model	China	The results pinpointed the following aspects: firstly, the total profits of the renewables producing firm have been dwindled because of the rises in the share obligation and the permit price; secondly, the charged price flexibility of a retailer has been risen by the differential pricing once confronting in the permit price, and the shared commitment rose; and finally, the totaled profits of the supply chain have been expressively increased by the collaboration between the renewables producing firm and the retailer.
[6]	2019	Delivers an inclusive bibliometric investigation that offers a complete grasp of the supply chain performance and renewables field.	Review	None	Providing a prospective scheme for the research community in this field.
[1]	2018	Provides study for the existing and prospecting published works in RESC detecting the core features of the modeling methods for the supply chain using system dynamics.	Review	None	The findings disclosed a lack of system dynamics usage in the renewables supply chain. Furthermore, modeling the macro view of renewable energies has not been explored yet. It also requires more consideration of the social aspects of the supply chain in sustainability concepts.
[88,89]	2018	Explores the significance of RE and green actions in logistics practices.	- Ordinary Least Square (OLS) [89] - Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) [88]	None	The results revealed that renewables are motivating factors of green logistics practices that foster environmental and economic sustainability.
[90]	2016	Provides a conceptual model applied to renewable energy projects (RES) that can provide a dimensioned agreement between logistic chain links.	Multicriteria analysis methods (AHP) and management programs (DBR and SAP-MRP)	None	The cooperation between supply chain activities in the execution of renewable energy projects offers new improvement opportunities, collaboration, and support an economic advantage for energy produced from RES to reach sustainable development goals.
[3]	2014	Discovers various scenarios of the effects of acquiring higher standards of clean electric power.	Case study	USA	GHG emissions could be decreased by using renewable sources such as water.
[91]	2013	It underlines the fundamental issues that facilitate the supply of renewables worldwide, which is incredibly convenient for developing countries.	Case study	Venezuela	The result demonstrates an organizational limitation in supporting knowledge generation. Sharing and reusing such valuable resources could be stimulated to solve some of the construction problems described in this study.
[5]	2013	Presents a synopsis of the status and development of renewables to generate electricity and debates the various obstacles that limited the progression of the Chinese renewables industry.	Review	China	The long-distance transmission networks are required to spatial disharmony in renewable energy supply. Also, more research and technology improvement and financial procedures should be elaborated to support the sustained development of renewable electricity generation.
[29]	2013	Investigates literature that considers the benefits of performance upgrading and overcomes obstacles to renewables supply chain enhancement.	Review	None	From an economic view, support the distribution channels by the technological side, energy efficiency, and advanced storage. From an environmental image, improve production processes with low emissions. Finally, from a social perspective, encourage the involvement of inhabitants to generate new job opportunities.
[92]	2013	Recognizes crucial areas of the business to let new actors from engineering, business, and policy to enter the renewables industry effectively.	Business model	None	The model leads to determine the 7 sides that could help the new actors in the renewables business, which are (strategic, resource, technology, feasibility analysis, value creation, customer and market, and stakeholder).
[9]	2012	Evaluates renewable energies from a supply chain point of view with the current electric system.	Qualitative approach	None	The managerial perceptions of researchers, governments, and stakeholders for introducing renewable electric energy usage are provided.
[93]	2011	Discusses the approaches to addressing Wind, Water, and Sun (WWS) to ensure the stability between the power supply and its demand.	Qualitative approach	None	The results confirmed that obstacles to all conversions to WWS power worldwide are predominantly social and political, not technical or economic issues.
[94]	2010	Presents a novel method to optimize the renewables supply for regional energy.	P-graph framework	None	A new clusters supply chain algorithm of the energy is revealed.
Wind energy
[95]	2020	Assesses the alternatives of simulation modeling to improve the wind energy supply chain	Simulation model	Brazil	The proposed model represents the core time delays in the wind energy supply chain.
[96]	2018	Proposes a combined model to set up the offshore wind turbine farms using port selection criteria and SC optimization.	Integer Linear Programming	UK	The results determine the utmost appropriate installation port for the case study offshore wind farm and figure the total transportation costs of the overall SC costs.
[97]	2017	Investigates offshore wind logistics practices in Europe and China to analyze the capability of SC to guarantee green practices.	Qualitative approach	Europe and China	This study discovers the respective capacities of the SC where global association and experience transfer may expedite positioning.
[98]	2015	Reviews the literature that covers the maintenance logistics of the offshore wind system.	Review	None	The findings revealed that the literature on maintenance logistics strategic decisions had gained the peak consideration, then the tactical and operational decisions.
[99]	2012	Presents offshore wind farms methodologies to design SC networks.	Qualitative approach	Germany	The findings could be used to improve more methods to assess the prospective influence of professional logistics on offshore wind systems.
[100]	2012	Develops a simulation model that cerebrates several logistics characteristics of wind energy.	Simulation model	Europe	The simulation tool developed in this study considers different logistical characteristics of the maritime supply chain in offshore wind farms.
[101]	2010	Analyses the fundamental conditions and current conflicts of supply chains for offshore wind installations.	Mixed-integer linear programming	None	The resulting calculations clarify an optimum installation schedule for offshore wind turbines by detecting various weather conditions. Besides, it can also be used to shrink vessel operation times independence on seasonal or updated weather forecasts.
Solar energy
[110]	2020	Proposes a supply chain network and reverse logistics to design and optimize a thin-film photovoltaic.	Bi-objective model	Iran	The results confirmed that using an optimistic approach to face uncertainty decreases the costs by 20% compared with the usage of a pessimistic approach.
[23]	2020	Develops a sustainable supply chain approach in the solar energy industry.	Multi-criteria decision-making framework	Europe	The framework offers a dominant tool to decision-makers for making decisions for sustainable investment in the photovoltaic energy industry.
[111]	2020	Develops a two-echelon (multi-period and multi-product) for the solar cell supply chain.	Mathematical model	Iran	The proposed model determines which scenario to be selected and defines how many solar panels of two kinds should be installed.
[112]	2020	It aims at reducing the environmental footprints and conventional cost objective of the concerned supply chain.	Mathematical model	Iran	The proposed model offers splendid practical and managerial insights into the solar energy supply chain.
[208]	2020	Explores a solar industry of contemporary trade conflict between China and the USA.	Game-theoretical modeling	China and USA	The results determine that the Free Trade policy would be the leading solution and SCM for developing solar energy sustainability.
Hydrogen energy
[122]	2020	Involves a hydrogen supply chain construction.	Optimization model	South Korea	The results show that a hydrogen supply chain centralized storage structure advanced the phase transition of central hydrogen production plants.
[209]	2020	Investigates the evolution of publications on hydrogen research and the collaboration network of the international scientific community.	Review	None	The analysis of international collaboration networks is listed.
[140]	2019	Executes an infrastructure assessment via spatial resolution for hydrogen energy infrastructures.	Spatially resolved infrastructure	Germany	The findings indicate that salt caverns and transmission pipelines are the main techniques for prospect hydrogen infrastructure schemes.
[210]	2019	Reviews the scientific works that scrutinize the Hydrogen Supply Chain Network Design (HSCND) systems.	Review	None	The prospective (HSCND) model problems for the upcoming study are explained.
[211]	2018	Discusses the main inspirations of hydrogen as a future alternative fuel, presenting current directions in hydrogen production and challenges for the upcoming supply chain of hydrogen energy.	Mathematical models	None	The book helps recognize the approaches used to evaluate the viability of developing a hydrogen supply chain, infrastructures, and safety performance.

, explained that the research in this field is considered recent as all publications were published in 2020. Although, supply chain optimization of solar energy was the common interest of those publications, which have been debated with various methodologies. The rest of the results generated from the research process argued about areas related to the technical solar energy issues and some economic aspects that are not associated with the supply chain or logistics themes.

4.5. Hydrogen Energy and Supply Chain (Stream 5—Category 1)

The review has discovered that the relation between SCM and hydrogen energy production is still in its nascent phase, as recently a book published in 2018 demonstrates the hydrogen logistics chain optimum control, with a certain concentration on a system of integrated abilities, production sources, methods of storing, and arrangements and the distribution procedures to the final clients. Besides, two papers published were a review of all models regarding the network design of the hydrogen supply chain. Furthermore, another two publications compared the various techniques to determine the hydrogen energy infrastructure and storage schemes; one was in Germany, and another was in South Korea. Otherwise, the rest of the studies discuss the infrastructure regarding hydrogen energy, which did not indicate the relation between supply chain activities and hydrogen energy production.

4.6. HRES and Supply Chain (Category 2)

Table A8. The most relevant HRES publications with supply chain and logistics schemes were published after 2010 (category 2).

Reference	Year	The General Purpose of the Study	Method/Approach	Geographical Area (if Any)	The Main Findings/Results of the Study
Solar and wind energy
[212]	2018	Provides a net-zero carbon production-inventory system regarding energy prosumerism.	Optimization model	None	The results revealed that a net-zero carbon production-inventory system is achievable and affordable, provided the photovoltaic setting up cost is well-matched with wind generation.
[213]	2018	Presents a complete framework for handling stored energy in micro-grids, focusing on renewable resources’ pure uncertainty.	Mathematical models	None	The results revealed significant enhancements in the Stochastic Dual Dynamic Programming (SDDP) algorithm and other regularization structures.
[214]	2017	Investigates the feasibility of controlling overall supply chain networks with net-zero-carbon on-site farms for wind and solar energy.	Optimization model	None	The experiments prove that a net-zero-carbon is technically and economically feasible according to the supply chain operation given in this study.
[8]	2016	Carries out a complete review of several phases of the solar-wind energy scheme.	Review	None	The study explains the prefeasibility analysis, optimal size, modeling, control characteristics, and reliability concerns regarding the solar-wind energy scheme.
Hydro-bio energy
[12]	2020	It aims at developing a bioenergy supply chain model for network design to assess the hybrid system.	Case study	Iran	The results revealed that the microalgae/Jatropha is more feasible than livestock manure and agricultural residues for energy production.
[121]	2016	Develops coal-based energy supply chains gradually over time and applies the supply chain management concept to water resource development, finally offering the end-to-end and active views required to expand the hydropower network for energy security.	Mathematical model	Pakistan	The results demonstrate the value of the supply chain in hydropower network expansion and provide visions of the prorated performance between popular practices and various strategies on the mix and sequence of sites with multiple forms and capacities.
Bio-energy and wind energy
[179]	2014	Considers the network layout and optimal allocation of electric biomass and wind energy supply chain.	Stochastic programming model	USA	The model shows that the key effect on the decisions is the subsidy level for renewable electricity production.

in Appendix B illustrates those works that group two types or more of renewable energy production as a hybrid system and their relationship with supply chain and logistics activities. Hence, the hybrid wind-solar energy system is highlighted in the literature appropriately, as four published works pinpoint such a hybrid system. Moreover, two papers develop the supply chain model for bioenergy and hydropower, one for energy security and the most recent for sustainable networking. In 2014, an article compiled between the bioenergy and wind for renewable electricity supply chains.

5. Limitations and Prospective Scopes

This review has several limitations; considering the descriptive data and the results presented in tables and figures, the statistical analysis is not deployed. Besides, the four scientific search engines only used: WoS, Scopus, Google Scholar, and ProQuest, which might not be enough to cover all relevant published works comprehensively. However, the study has offered a wide range of published scientific works related to such a field without harming the entire study and its reputation. In addition, the publications divergence produced from the searching in different search engines with various datasets and filtering procedures that cannot assure the quality levels of filtered works is the same. In the future, the prospective studies can enhance the searching strategies by more determinations for the databases used for conducting such research and assess the reliability and validity of results using statistical analysis and focusing on the datasets with the identical strands to ensure the quality of the publications gathered.

6. Practical and Managerial Implications

This review classifies and categorizes all relevant concerns related to SCM for energy production, with more concentration on renewable energy resources. Accordingly, the study has organized this relationship into two main categories with eight key sub-branches to facilitate the literature refinement process and to determine the research gap regarding this field accurately; thus, the findings illustrated from this classification have led to clarify the scientific research gaps, which might be covered thereafter in the future studies which are the critical intent of this study. Additionally, although the increasing number of publications regarding SCM and RE production. However, according to the analysis of the published works and their classifications highlighted in this review, it could be determined that:

• Various aspects of the supply chain and logistics activities within the RE production field are adequately covered in the literature, such as managing, controlling, and modeling the supply chain for biomass, wind, and solar power production. However, it needs more attention for the rest of the renewables (i.e., geothermal, hydropower, and tidal).
• Most of the studies concentrated on bioenergy, approximately 68% of the screened literature addresses this category. Additionally, managing the supply chain of biomass products to produce bioenergy such as bioethanol, biofuel, or biogas was the central theme within this category as it represented about 65% of the published works in this area. Hence, increasing the scientific contributions regarding the other disciplines is required, especially the intelligent logistics system for biomass production such as optimization and modeling, intelligent transportation systems, or blockchain and information control.
• Some regions were sufficiently studied, while others need more adequate research in such a field; for example, the highest ratio goes to North America and Europe. At the same time, in contrast, the West of Asia, the golf area, and Africa have the lowest research studies. However, those areas have good opportunities to establish and develop renewable energy farms. Moreover, due to their nature, location, and weather, they might also be hub areas in renewable energy production. Notwithstanding, most of these areas comprise developing countries, and most of them have a deficiency in energy resources.
• Transportation; as one of the logistics activities, it is covered only in biomass production because the biomass production scope is the only field that has physical movements, while the rest of RE transportation operations are via networking and grids, so no physical movements exist but only designs and planning for such networks that require engineering techniques. Nevertheless, the research community should contemplate supply chain activities of non-physical activities such as optimal network planning, network capacity optimization, and timely distribution and delivery.

Furthermore, the results of this review show some positive managerial implications in the existing literature for business sectors, especially for supply chain service providers to reduce dependency on traditional energy. Simultaneously, the analysis presents that using renewable energy in supply chain activities to be green operations was one of the streams covered during the last decade. Hence, they are required to adjust their activities and strategies for sustainable expansion based on renewable energy in order to sustain their business by merging renewable energy usage into their services to reduce carbon emissions in the long run and achieve sustainable business performance. However, boosting the supply chain activities to be green is restrained by some obstacles, such as the transformation cost, governmental procedures, organization characteristics, service limitations, etc. [26]. Thus, the proper understanding of these barriers is the key success factor in executing the green supply chain activities and applications.

7. Conclusion and Future Research Prospective

The relationship between SC and RE technologies development has been a subject of growing attention in the previous published scientific works. Although the literature related to the logistics and supply chain practices associated with the renewable energy context has been amalgamated with transportation, forecasting, network optimization, and inventory management; however, the most concentrated on biomass as it has more materialistic activities than the others. Therefore, according to the analysis conducted, the oncoming research may opt and dedicate an in-depth consideration via empirical examinations, proper modeling, and simulation tools to cover the types of RE and their related supply chain and logistics activity, which are rare in the literature, such as geothermal, hydrogen, hydropower, tidal, and HRES. Additionally, the most newly cradle aspects that need more investigation due to their importance principally for a sustainability concept, such as intelligent logistics for RE production, using simulation tools to optimize the supply chain activities within RE production, the supply chain for maintaining the RE systems (i.e., maintenance supply chain).