Technological innovation and renewable energy development: evidence based on patent counts

Abstract

Technological innovation plays an important role in the process of renewable energy development. This paper mainly discussed the influenced mechanism of the technological innovation on renewable energy development in six major developed countries during 1980-2010 employing panel cointegration and panel error correction models. The empirical results indicate that renewable energy consumption has a long-run equilibrium relationship with technological innovation and other external driving factors. The results from the panel error correction model indicate that bidirectional causality exists between technological innovation and renewable energy consumption in the long run. This shows that the manifestation of the promoting effect of technological innovation on renewable energy development requires a certain amount of time. Moreover, there is significant unidirectional causality from other external driving factors including GDP per capita, carbon dioxide emissions per capita and international crude oil price to renewable energy technological innovation.