Barriers to Breakthroughs: Navigating Renewable Energy Innovation, Uncertainty, and Economic Growth for Sustainable Development

ABSTRACT The transition to renewable energy is a cornerstone of sustainable development, yet it faces significant challenges. Key barriers include grid integration issues, technological immaturity, high initial costs, and policy and regulatory uncertainty. However, overcoming these hurdles offers substantial rewards, including new economic opportunities, lower energy costs, accelerated technological innovation, and more inclusive growth—ultimately paving the way for a sustainable future. Thus, this study investigates the impacts of energy policy uncertainty, economic policy uncertainty, ESG‐related uncertainty, financial market uncertainty, economic growth, corruption and socioeconomic conditions on renewable energy innovation in United states from 2002 to 2023. Study employs Quantile‐on‐Quantile regression (QQR), Cross‐quantilogram (CQ), Causality‐in‐Quantile (CiQ), Wavelet‐Quantile Regression (WQR), and Wavelet‐Quantile Correlation (WQC) to examine the impacts, directional predictability, causal link among the studied variables, effect of the conditional quantiles and co‐relations among the focused variables at different quantiles and time scales, respectively. Results show that GDP, economic policy uncertainty, ESG‐related uncertainty, financial market uncertainty, socioeconomic conditions and energy policy uncertainty have positive impacts on renewable energy innovation and intensity and direction vary across the quantiles from 10th to 90th. Moreover, economic policy uncertainty is not associated with renewable energy innovation and impacts are weak and invisible over most of quantiles. Lastly, corruption has strong negative impacts on renewable energy innovation and it discourages investments and innovations pertaining to renewable energy. Green technology innovation, energy transition, financial technology, and quality governance are suggested to mitigate uncertainties and corruption while promoting economic growth and sustainable development.