The impact of renewable energy generation on energy security: Evidence from the G7 countries

Abstract

Energy security has been brought into the foreground of political and economic agendas nowadays. However, this variable has been only in very few papers employed as dependent or independent variable. In most research so far, energy security is implied and is proxied by certain variables. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between energy generation from renewable energy sources and energy security in the G7 countries for the period 1980–2018 by using the panel autoregressive distributed lag, panel quantile-on-quantile regression and the Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel Granger causality analyses. The results reveal that there is a uni-directional causal link from renewable energy to energy security in the short-run and generating energy from renewable sources significantly reduces the risks that threaten energy security in the long run. Furthermore, quantile-on-quantile regression estimates indicate that, for the quantile above 0.5 in terms of renewable energy generation, energy security risks are reduced, and secure access to energy is strengthened in the G7 countries. The diverse implications generated by each methodology are particularly relevant today, given the current energy crisis in Europe and the pressing need to increase the share of renewable energy generation to mitigate energy security risks.