How is COVID-19 affecting the renewable energy sector and the electric power grid?

Abstract

It is not new to say that clean energy is better than energy from fossil fuels. What's new is that the world has a unique opportunity to accelerate clean development by putting renewable energy at the center of Covid-19 economic recovery plans. The process began with the individual quarantine of people; the closure of businesses, the decrease in the workforce and cash flow of companies, serious problems in production affected many sectors, including the energy sector, and currently, ongoing construction in power generation facilities has come to a standstill. In this study, it was investigated how the epidemic affected the renewable energy sector. Overall, energy demand fell but did not collapse completely. The most significant impact is felt in production centers and businesses where industrial demand is decreasing, but there is an increase in residential customer demand. Along with the decrease in natural gas prices, the decrease in demand caused the prices in the electricity wholesale markets to decrease. Although the fossil resources demand significantly decreased during the epidemic period, it remains uncertain for the post-epidemic period, there are signs that there may be changes in the global market structure, but the impact on renewable energy investments may be limited. On the renewable energy side, where energy investments have decreased significantly due to the epidemic, many investor companies are suffering from disruptions in the supply chain. However, the recovery of activities in China, the largest producer, will significantly reduce the negative impact in the short term.