Abstract
It is believed that renewable energy may become a dominant energy in the future. However, whether renewable energy can promote industry development like the use of fossil energy is still unknown. This paper uses social accounting matrix (SAM) multiplier model to analyze the economic effects of renewable and coal energy in China. The transmission mechanisms of renewable and coal energy on production factors are also compared from the perspective of sector industry chain based on the structural path analysis (SPA) analysis method. We found that; renewable energy plays a stronger role in promoting the national economy than coal energy. Meanwhile, renewable energy can better promote the upgrading of the industrial structure compared with coal energy. Additionally, renewable energy affects economic development, mainly through the intermediate industries such as electrical machinery manufacturing and transportation, warehousing and service industries. These findings provide further insights into the influence path of renewable energy, which yields important implications for reasonably designing and choosing new energy development planning.
Highlights
As a leading energy in the future, renewable energy is conducive to reducing greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions, and is favored by many countries [1]
The most important one is whether the increased consumption of renewable energy can greatly affect the fossil energy-based economic development? can the increased consumption of renewable energy better promote the upgrading of the industrial structure compared to increasing fossil energy consumption? we aim to identify the impacts of renewable energy on the economy, and compare the results with coal resources, so as to find the role of renewable energy in promoting economic development
We study the economic benefits of renewable energy based on the structural path analysis (SPA) method under the social accounting matrix (SAM) framework: (1) we measure the overall impacts of renewable energy and coal on the economy using SAM multiplier model that can reflect the interaction of production system, households and social institutions in the economy; (2) we decompose the overall economic effects of renewable energy and coal from three dimensions–transfer effect, open-loop effect, and closed-loop effect; (3) we analyze the transmission mechanisms of renewable energy and coal on economic growth from the perspective of sector industrial chain based on SPA analysis
Summary
As a leading energy in the future, renewable energy is conducive to reducing greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions, and is favored by many countries [1]. China’s total installed capacity of wind and photovoltaic power has reached the first place in the world in 2018, according to. World Energy Outlook 2018 from International Energy Agency. The rapid development of renewable energy could inevitably lead to a series of problems. Can the increased consumption of renewable energy better promote the upgrading of the industrial structure compared to increasing fossil energy consumption? The influence path of renewable energy on economic development is studied. Existing studies have carried out some investigation on the relationship between renewable energy and economic development [2,3,4]. Some studies analyzed the impacts of renewable energy on employment, and sector output by Employment Rate Analysis and Supply Chain Analysis [5,6,7]
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