Renewable energy has dominated scientific research since the dawn of the twenty-first century. Though scientists have developed convincing and useful renewable energy solutions, especially in impoverished countries, the process of persuading people to stop using non-renewable energy sources has been quite sluggish and unsure. This essay seeks to understand the reasons why many nations continue to rely on fossil fuels, particularly coal, and the difficulties in implementing renewable energy technologies, which harm the potential of those technologies in many nations. The over-reliance on fossil fuels (coal), political and regulatory obstacles, technical obstacles, market related obstacles, social and cultural obstacles, financial and economic obstacles, and geographic and ecological obstacles have all been discussed in the essay as barriers to the adoption of renewable energy. The paper identifies gaps in renewable energy development that researchers, students, policymakers, and individuals or organizations who may be concerned with promoting renewable energy technologies may need to address in their research and decision-making processes.