In the modern era renewable energy generation technologies have broad societal impact and need to be assessed considering multiple perspectives including: social, technological, economic, environmental, and political (STEEP). Assessment of energy technologies is a complex process because it is based on multiple criteria and multiple decision makers, and usually requires analytical models. The purpose of this paper is to review the literature to determine the assessment methods used and the perspectives covered. As a result of the literature analysis a list of perspectives addressed by each research study is compiled and the gaps in the research are identified. The focus of this paper is solar photovoltaic technologies.