  Research attention on decentralized autonomous energy systems has increased
exponentially in the past three decades, as demonstrated by the absolute number
of publications and the share of these studies in the corpus of energy system
modelling literature. This paper shows the status quo and future modelling
needs for research on local autonomous energy systems. A total of 359 studies
are roughly investigated, of which a subset of 123 in detail. The studies are
assessed with respect to the characteristics of their methodology and
applications, in order to derive common trends and insights. Most case studies
apply to middle-income countries and only focus on the supply of electricity in
the residential sector. Furthermore, many of the studies are comparable
regarding objectives and applied methods. Local energy autonomy is associated
with high costs, leading to levelized costs of electricity of 0.41 $/kWh on
average. By analysing the studies, many improvements for future studies could
be identified: the studies lack an analysis of the impact of autonomous energy
systems on surrounding energy systems. In addition, the robust design of
autonomous energy systems requires higher time resolutions and extreme
conditions. Future research should also develop methodologies to consider local
stakeholders and their preferences for energy systems.
