Abstract
Renewable energy can help to tackle energy poverty issues of the availability of modern energy services and the sustainability of energy supply. Based on the concept of the Energy Development Index, published by International Energy Agency, this paper builds the clean energy development index and applies the Grey incidence decision method to analyze regional energy poverty issues in China. A model using panel data investigates the influencing factors that are governing energy poverty alleviation and the relationship between energy poverty and social development. The improved index system not only considers the access to modern energy services, but also addresses the cleanliness of energy supply and the transition to clean energy consumption for cooking. The results indicate that due to insufficient clean energy development, China’s Northeast and West regions have experienced increasing energy poverty problems, while energy poverty in the Southwest region has improved considerably because of its renewable energy development. Urbanization, affordability, and renewable energy development can increase access to modern energy services, contributing to energy poverty alleviation. However, the role of rural household consumption levels in energy poverty alleviation should be considered in rural energy policy.
Highlights
Energy poverty is a status of poor access to modern energy services
The region with the lowest energy poverty score has been changed from Inner
After obtaining the regional energy poverty scores between 2005 and 2011, this paper averages the scores for each region to figure out which area experienced serious energy poverty problems
Summary
Energy poverty is a status of poor access to modern energy services. These services are usually explained as household access to electricity and clean cooking facilities [1]. The insufficient access to modern energy services is a serious hindrance to economic and social development, and should be overcome if United Nations Millennium Development Goals are to be achieved. The follow-up action of Millennium Development Goals is the recent UN Sustainable Development Goals. The seventh sustainable development goal suggests the target on universal access to affordable, reliable, and modern energy services as the core of energy poverty alleviation [2]. In order to promote the countries to achieve access to modern energy services, International Energy Agency (IEA) presented an Energy
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