Despite globally progressing energy transition, the deployment of non-hydropower renewable energy (NHRE) in developing countries varies by country and overall is moderate. This entry aims to explain why developing economies with significant challenges in the energy sector are not actively engaged in NHRE diffusievelonpment. In doing so, theis entry reviews scholarly work on renewable energy (RE) deployment in developing countries and presents. For assessing the NHRE development status in developing countries, a two-stage analytical framework for assessing the NHRE development statusis proposed. The procedure first helps assess the current situation in the national energy sectors in connection to their economic growth and development, environmental sustainability and energy security. At the next stage, the framework lets aThen, it analyses the preparedness of the national energy sectors for NHRE diffusion. The analysis spans in six dimensions: structure of energy sector, RE regulation, institutions and governance, capital and investment, infrastructure and business environment, and human capital. The two-stage analytical framework assists in checkingsis helps check the hypothesis that more advanced economically and institutionally countries are more likely to commence NHRE development.