Comparing the Substitution of Nuclear Energy or Renewable Energy for Fossil Fuels between the United States and Africa

Abstract

This study explores the differences in energy consumption between the highly economically developed United States and economically underdeveloped Africa. This study conducted the parameter estimation and equilibrium analysis of a Lotka–Volterra model to investigate the short-term and long-term relations of different types of energy, respectively. The parameter estimation results show that nuclear energy consumption increases the consumption of fossil fuels in the United States but decreases fossil fuel consumption in Africa. This implies that Africa can replace fossil fuels with nuclear energy in the short run. Given the current state of energy consumption, the results of the equilibrium analysis indicate that the United States’ nuclear and fossil fuel consumption will reach a stable long-term equilibrium. However, Africa will experience significant fluctuations in nuclear and fossil fuel consumption, and both nuclear and fossil fuel consumption will eventually be depleted. The highly economically developed United States arranges energy consumption in an environmentally friendly way and reshapes economies to achieve sustainability, so its long-term energy consumption is more stable than economically underdeveloped Africa. Accuracy analysis results show that the nuclear or renewable energy consumption predicted by the Lotka–Volterra model is more accurate than that of a Bass model since the Lotka–Volterra model considers energy interactions.