Turning Toward the Sun: A Cross-National Analysis of Solar Energy Generation

Abstract

Anthropogenic climate change has provoked worldwide responses to address existing and impending dangers to the natural world and society. The rapid expansion of solar energy in recent decades has emerged as a viable alternative for generating electricity and is largely responsible for the steady growth in overall renewable energy expansion worldwide. In this paper, I examine factors influencing the rise in solar energy generation, cross-nationally from 2000 through 2016. Using Fixed Effects (FE) panel regression analysis with a lagged dependent variable, I test variables associated with ecological modernization theory, aspects of the world economy and foreign direct investment dependence, and assertions of world society theory and the role of international nongovernmental organizations in spreading global environmentalism. Findings for the analysis are consistent with previous studies focusing on the global environmental regime and the spread of environmentalism worldwide in influencing country-level behavior in relation to the environment. As energy demands worldwide soar, the implications of these findings point to how integration within the global civil society has the potential to influence remediation of environmental issues due to climate change.