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•Diverse tools for renewable energy design and optimization.•Trends: US market dominance, identified research gaps.•Enhanced accuracy and compatibility in surviving tools.•Future: Machine learning, AI, blockchain for energy innovation.

•The full spectrum of solar energy is efficiently utilized by a cascading approach.•The synergistic utilization of solar energy and fossil fuel is achieved.•The disparity between energy input ratio and hydrogen production contribution is identified.•The system's average carbon dioxide reduction rate is about 16.84–13.80 kg/kgH2.