A synergistic analysis of solar and wind energy deployment in Europe

Abstract

Recent energy tensions have added to the pressure that global warming has been exerting for an energy transition towards low-carbon energy sources such as renewable energy sources (RES). This study proposes a novel methodology to inspect the interactions between wind and solar energy development relative to other RES and a wide range of socio-economic and environmental variables in 21 European countries during the period 2007–2021. First, countries are ordered according to their average level during the evaluated period. The ordinal position of each country is used as input for a multivariate analysis that avoids problems of multicollinearity and inefficiency inherent to model estimation with a large number of intertwined covariates. In a second stage, by means of Categorical Principal Component Analysis (CATPCA) all the information from the rankings is synthesized into two factors. This makes it possible to graphically evaluate the interplay between the different variables and the relative positioning of the countries in relation to the average level observed for the different factors during the sample period. Overall, the obtained results suggest a decoupling between the development of wind energy and solar energy sources. High levels of wind penetration in the RES mix seem to be positively associated with energy consumption and economic factors while solar energy seems to have experienced greater development in countries with greater energy dependence. The finding that energy, economic and environmental variables affect the development of wind and solar energy very differently highlights the need to analyze each of the renewable energy sources independently. Likewise, it has important implications in terms of the design of energy policies, highlighting the importance of implementing sector-specific measures.