Introduction:

The increase in global energy demand, environmental problems and geopolitical tensions due to the control of finite conventional energy resources; these are reasons that have currently focused the attention of scientists on the applications of solar energy.

Objective:

of this contribution is to reflect the trends in research regarding applications of solar energy.

Materials and methods:

used in this investigation consisted of a search and bibliometric analysis carried out in the academic directory Scopus. A group of publications was detected under specific search criteria. The information detected was processed with text mining elements in the visualization software and bibliometric map exploration of VOSviewer science. The article dead sections, records of the first applications of solar energy, the social environment of solar energy applications, the first scientific meetings of global connotation in this subject, and bibliometrics of scientific activity focused on the applications of solar energy in the 21st century.

Result:

of the research, a sociological and anthropological vision of the man / energy interaction is exposed; this complements lines of research such as sustainable production and consumption, energy management and climate change.

Conclusions:

The trend in these investigations today, is to growth, and are focused on: heating and cooling of buildings, electric power generation, both in concentrated and distributed forms; and energy conversion for industrial processes.