Abstract
Considering that the European Directive has imposed that at least 20% of the total energy should come from renewable energy sources (RES) by 2020 already and the specific targets for each European Union Member State, this paper attempts to assess the importance of GDP per capita in realizing these targets and also the effects of the RES share in electricity. Contrary to previous research, this paper does not consider the connection between economic growth and RES, but rather the potential connection between the share of RES in electricity and the real GDP per capita. The panel data models indicated to a positive, but very low impact of GDP per capita on the share of RES in electricity in the period of 2007–2017 in the case of the EU countries, except Luxembourg that has outlier values of GDP per capita. However, causality between the two variables was not identified. Some groups of countries were described according to these variables using cluster analysis. Future research should focus on the extension of this model by including other important variables such as RES potential available in the countries with specific geographical conditions.
Highlights
In the last few decades, concerns about environmental security, sustainability and climate change have grown, forcing governments to find viable alternatives to the traditional energy sector to limit its negative impact on the environment
For the European Union (EU)-28, the results indicate that a growth of 1% in primary production of renewable energy sources (RES) generates an increase of 0.05–0.06% in GDP per capita [28]
A study of the relationship between share of renewable energy in electricity and GDP per capita based on panel data models and Granger causality; An analysis of the groups of countries in the EU-28 according to share of renewable energy in electricity and GDP per capita
Summary
In the last few decades, concerns about environmental security, sustainability and climate change have grown, forcing governments to find viable alternatives to the traditional energy sector to limit its negative impact on the environment. The use of renewable energy, even if expensive, reduces gas emissions that negatively influence the environment [1,2,3]. Considering that fossil fuels will be depleted relatively soon, the reform of the energy sector has been considered a priority for the European Union (EU) and other regions of the world too. Today’s technologies are used to generate most part of the renewable energy, a significant part of it being obtained from biomass. Experts predicted that by 2040 RES will have a share of 50% in the world energy consumption [6]
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