Impact of Energy Consumption from Renewable Energy Sources on Economic Growth: Evidence from Nigeria

Abstract

This study examines the impact of renewable energy consumption and electricity tariff on the economy of Nigeria. The study considers the casual relationship and vector decomposition between various renewable energy sources (solar, hydro and biomass), electricity price and Gross domestic product (GDP) using an unrestricted vector error correction model (VECM). In addition, other robust econometric techniques were applied to the time series of GDP, electricity price and energy consumption from renewable energy sources from 1980 to 2021. The findings indicated a 1% increase in biomass consumption causes increase in GDP by 0.14% in the long-run. Mixed result in the short-run with the difference in the log value of the current lag of solar and bio electricity consumption having positive impact on GDP. The coefficient of the Error Correction Model (ECM) was negative (-0.49) and statistically significant indicating that short-run change from the long-run equilibrium is corrected by 49% annually. Unidirectional causality from GDP to solar electricity consumption. Solar, hydro, biomass and electricity price explain 1.4%, 0.4% 2.2% & 12% respectively of fluctuations in GDP in the long-run. The study results demonstrates that regulations need to be put in place to control the adverse effect of consuming biomass on the environment which could cause mixed impact on gross domestic product in the short run whereas, policies to foster development of solar projects could impact positively on GDP and alleviate the electricity supply deficiency in Nigeria.