Renewable Energy Companies Research Articles

Corporate community engagement professionals in the renewable energy industry: Dilemmas and agency at the frontline of South Africa’s energy transition

Renewable energy companies increasingly employ community engagement professionals tasked with facilitating dialogue and collaborative activities with communities in project areas. Situated at the interface between corporate renewable energy production and community needs and grievances, these practitioners occupy a potentially significant position in the everyday implementation of socially just energy transitions. In this article we contribute to the understanding of corporate community engagement professionals in the renewable energy sector, with a focus on their challenges and agency inside the companies that employ them. Through an in-depth qualitative study of community engagement professionals in the South African wind- and solar industries we identify three key dilemmas faced by the involved practitioners, namely (i) how to pursue personal ideals in a corporate context, (ii) how to make a difference from a marginalised position inside the company, and (iii) how to deliver results without practice frameworks. We further find that they actively seek to address these dilemmas through a range of measures, such as embedding personal ideals in their everyday work, mobilising their position at the interface between company and community, and creatively piecing together their own approaches to community engagement. Our findings thereby indicate that corporate community engagement professionals should be understood and analysed as actors in their own right, rather than mere extensions of the company leadership.

Assessing the impact of green fiscal policies and energy poverty on energy efficiency.

This article estimates the ties between green fiscal policies and energy efficiency in COVID-19 era. For this purpose, data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach is considered and applied. The study findings show that green fiscal policies, such as public supports and tax rebates, have significant role in reducing energy poverty of different international countries by advancing energy efficiency. Therefore, a panel data ranging from 2010 to 2020 is used. Our findings indicate that the aggregate degree of green fiscal policies help to decline energy poverty. Renewable energy companies had larger series of net fiscal competence and size efficiency, and their levels of energy efficiency were greater than 0.457%, with the 16% effect of current public supports and 11% effect of taxation rebates supported to diminish energy poverty with 29.7% in different international economies. This is a positive effect by green fiscal policies. The study also presented policy implications suggesting effectively implementing green fiscal policies for more efficient carbon reduction and making climate change supportive for peoples in post COVID-19 period.

Sustaining the Unsustainable: Why Renewable Energy Companies Are Not Climate Warriors

Sustaining the Unsustainable: Why Renewable Energy Companies Are Not Climate Warriors

Making hydrocarbons with CO2 from cement

The cement maker Cemex, electrolysis firm Sunfire, and renewable energy company Enertrag have formed Concrete Chemicals, a consortium that aims to use CO 2 emitted in the production of cement as a chemical raw material. The partners will combine the CO 2 with green hydrogen produced from water electrolysis powered by renewable energy to make fuels and chemicals. In a first step, the partners have applied for financing from the German government to build a 5,000 metric ton per year facility at Cemex’s plant in Rüdersdorf, Germany.

The Crisis of US Coal Communities: Strategies for a Just Transition to Renewable Energy

Though coal was once a leading source of energy and economic growth, negative health impacts, detrimental environmental effects, and market forces have led to a rapid decline in production. Without nationwide legislation aiding them, coal-dependent communities in the US are suffering from financial downfall during this shift. Here, we propose three policy options to uplift these communities by providing subsidies to renewable energy companies that expand operations in former coal communities, reclaim the land, and provide job retraining. These options, alongside suggested federal funding for direct community aid, work cohesively to provide a lasting source of economic stability, improve environmental and public health in former coal-dependent communities, and mitigate the climate crisis. We call upon the Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization (Interagency Working Group) to ensure the diversion of subsidies away from the coal industry and towards these efforts to promote a just transition for the affected communities.

Alternative Financial Methods for Improving the Investment in Renewable Energy Companies

Renewable energies have increased in importance in recent years due to the harm caused to the environment by fossil fuels. As a result, renewable energy companies seem to be profitable investment opportunities given their likely substantial future earnings. However, previous empirical evidence has not always agreed about this likely profitability. In addition, the methodologies employed in the existing empirical literature are complicated and not feasible for most investors to use. Therefore, it is proposed an approach which combines the use of performance measures, screening rules, devolatized returns and portfolio strategies, all of which can be implemented by investors. This approach results in high cumulative returns of more than 200% and other positive ratios, even when transaction costs are considered. This should encourage people to invest in these renewable energies and contribute to improving the environment.

The Effect of Technology Innovation on Corporate Sustainability in Chinese Renewable Energy Companies

Technology innovation has become the main driving force of China’s economic growth. Sustainable development highlights the harmonious symbiosis of the economy and the ecological environment. Renewable energy companies characterized by technology-intensive and environmental friendliness are playing an increasingly important role in achieving economic development while alleviating environmental pressure. Therefore, this paper selects the A-share renewable energy listed companies in China between 2014 and 2019 as samples, using the fixed-effect model and the logit model to explore the effect of technology innovation on corporate sustainability. We find that technology innovation has a positive effect on both financial sustainability (FS) and social and environmental sustainability (SES). Due to the imbalance of regional social and environmental development and different degrees of emphasis placed on environmental and social responsibility, the positive impact of technology innovation on SES is heterogeneous between the east and the central and west regions. Moreover, as the strategic emerging industry, although the renewable energy industry is granted lots of subsidies from the government, the results show that when government subsidies exceed the threshold, the effect of technology innovation on FS is weakened. Government subsidies have a negative moderating effect on the relationship between innovation and SES. Furthermore, we subdivide government subsidies into government subsidies beforehand (GSB) and government subsidies afterwards (GSA). We reveal that the threshold effect of government subsidies mainly comes from GSA, while the moderating effect of government subsidies is caused by GSA and GSB. This paper is an expansion and enrichment of current studies on sustainable development and also puts forward feasible suggestions for the government to formulate precise and effective subsidy policies to stimulate technology innovation.

Does Intellectual Capital Investment Improve Financial Competitiveness and Green Innovation Performance? Evidence from Renewable Energy Companies in China

This paper aims to investigate the impact of intellectual capital (IC) and its components on financial competitiveness and green innovation performance. The data are collected from renewable energy companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges during 2013–2018. The modified Value Added Intellectual Coefficient (MVAIC) model is applied as a proxy for IC efficiency, an index system is constructed to systematically measure financial competitiveness, and green innovation performance is measured by the total number of green patents, the number of green invention patents, and the number of green noninvention patents. The empirical results show that IC has an inverted U-shaped relationship with financial competitiveness and no impact on green innovation performance. Regarding IC components, human capital (HC), structural capital, and relational capital positively affect financial competitiveness. HC has a negative impact on green patents, while innovation capital has a positive impact on green invention patents. Physical capital is the main driving force of green innovation performance. This study will help managers to reasonably manage their IC resources to strengthen financial competitiveness and achieve green development.

The impacts of environmental performance and development of financing decisions on economic sustainable performance: from the view of renewable and clean energy industry

Developing green economy and mitigating environmental pollution have strategically important role in China's commitments against global climate warming. An ongoing issue energy industry has been how to craft a financing structure which maximizes economic value under increasing environmental pressures. This study theorized that environmental management impacts on financing decisions by external effects and that the interaction between corporate environmental performance and external financing choices is associated with economic performance. It used the generalized method of moments estimation technique to analyze a sample of Chinese-listed clean and renewable energy companies during the period 2008–2018. The findings demonstrate that debt and equity financing composition have significant impacts on short- and long-term economic. The environmental performance has contributed to economic performance, which has increased to a great degree in the long run, but engendered negative effects in the short term. The empirical analyses provide that environmental governance moderates the relationship between external financing and economic performance.

A Study on Emerging Management Practices of Renewable Energy Companies after the Outbreak of Covid-19: Using an Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) Approach

The role of management practices in the success of renewable energy organizations is not negligible because management practices are the backbone of any organization. Energy organizations are facing drastic environmental issues; therefore, the sector inevitably requires environment- friendly production, which is only possible through the deployment of concurrent management practices because sluggish management practices lead to dormancy and inadequate performance. This study investigates the emerging management practices that will enable the renewable energy sector to fulfill the current demands of the market, especially after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. This research deployed a qualitative research methodology that is grounded in the interpretivism research paradigm. Interpretive structural modeling (ISM) was applied due to the extent of its logical thinking, and its ability to address complex issues and disseminate results precisely. Data were collected through primary (structured and unstructured interviews) and secondary sources (literature reviews published in the last 10 years). Interviews of top- and middle-level managers working in the renewable energy sector of developing countries were conducted. The findings of the study postulate that the implementation of knowledge management practices and policy changes are the key influencing factors to achieve sustainable organizational performance. Decentralization also has the potential to influence and navigate the organizational performance of energy companies. The findings of the research advocate innovative practices for the energy sector that influence organizational performance. The qualitative findings of the study suggest that emerging practices, including knowledge management practices and decentralization, may proliferate organizational growth and development. The novel framework of the study implies that organizations should work progressively in deploying emerging management practices such as establishing a central response hub to avoid delays under the umbrella of resilience leadership.

Tackling material constraints on the exponential growth of the energy transition

Tackling material constraints on the exponential growth of the energy transition

AN ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE AND INVESTOR’S EXPERIENCE OF INDIAN RENEWABLE ENERGY INDUSTRY

The development of the renewable energy industry is an important support for the sustainable development of the social economy. It is strategic significance in economic and national security is immeasurable. The process of cultivating, developing, and upgrading the renewable energy industry in India is a comprehensive system that includes finance, resources, technology, and management. Renewable energy finance is a new area of public policy that requires innovation and research that will have a significant impact on investors in the World. Till today, many researchers think renewable energy is an issue of science and engineering, but the future of renewable energy is no longer about science and technology; it's all about access to finance. The renewable energy sector in India is growing rapidly and presents an opportunity for strong financial returns. The present research paper aims to know the financial performance of selected renewable energy companies of the Indian renewable energy industry through various financial ratios. The financial performance of any industry is effect to their respective industrial investors. Hence, investors' experience is analyzed. A specific group of investors who invest in the renewable energy industry is selected and posed a structured questionnaire to know their investment experience in the renewable energy sector in India. 
 JEL Classification Codes: F36, P17, G23, Q29, Q43, L7

Correlations between crude oil and stocks prices of renewable energy and technology companies: A multiscale time-dependent analysis

The study on the dynamic relationships between crude oil, stock prices of renewable energy and technology companies has aroused increasingly interest in the literature. This work novelly proposes the application of a time-dependent intrinsic correlation (TDIC) method to investigate the interconnection by quantitatively establishing its linkage between these three markets. TDIC is a Hilbert-Huang transform-based correlation tool in which the sliding window size for running correlation calculation can be adaptively adjusted by the instantaneous period of intrinsic mode function (IMFs) with characteristic scale. The time-varying associations between the West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures, the WilderHill Clean Energy Index and the NYSE Arca Technology Index are clarified and discussed in the short, medium and long-term. The findings show that the long-term (one year and above) correlation between pairwise markets is higher than the short-term (within one week) on average, which, in turn, is greater than the medium-term. A decreasing dependence of renewable energy on crude oil particularly after European debt crisis is detected. Besides, the relatively greater connection effects of negative changes than positive changes are revealed. These results are crucial for investors and policymakers to have flexible investment portfolio and risk management strategies in energy and financial markets.

Permeability evaluation of Industry 4.0 technologies in cloud-based energy management systems environments - Energy Cloud

Paper aims This article aims to diagnose the penetration level of Industry 4.0 technologies in cloud-based energy management systems, the Energy Cloud. Originality The energy sector is undergoing a technological evolution driven by the integration of Industry 4.0 technologies with energy management systems, making relevant the study of the permeability of these technologies with energy companies. Research method The research used two articles on Energy Cloud as a theoretical basis and a data collection carried out with managers of renewable energy companies, with the data being analyzed using the MONNA software. Main findings The results show that there is a greater understanding and use of the Internet of Things and Sensors technologies to the detriment of Cloud Computing and Big Data. Implications for theory and practice The article shows that there is a need for managers to seek greater familiarization, especially with Cloud Computing and Big Data.

ВЛИЯНИЕ «ЗЕЛЕНОЙ» ПОВЕСТКИ НА РЫНОЧНУЮ КАПИТАЛИЗАЦИЮ РОССИЙСКИХ И ИНОСТРАННЫХ КОМПАНИЙ НЕФТЕГАЗОВОГО СЕКТОРА

The article reflects the problems of Russian and foreign companies in the oil and gas sector in the context of the global orientation of the energy paradigm to the "green" agenda. The main research methods are the assessment of the growth rates of generalized capitalization indicators of Russian and foreign energy companies and companies specializing in alternative energy, as well as correlation analysis, which allows to identify the strength of the relationship between the studied indicators and the construction of correlation matrices. As a result of this study, quantitative results were obtained. The study revealed an increase in the capitalization of renewable energy companies along with the stagnation of the capitalization of foreign oil and gas companies. However, a similar phenomenon was not detected in the Russian traditional energy sector. It should also be noted that during the correlation analysis, a strong inverse relationship was observed between the capitalizations of foreign energy companies and green energy companies, as well as a similar relationship between the capitalizations of foreign energy companies and global investments in alternative energy. There is no similar connection in the Russian energy sector. The purpose of this study is to assess the sensitivity of the capitalizations of traditional energy companies to the changing energy paradigm. The implementation of this goal is based not only on the results obtained by the authors, but also on the study of the opinions of the scientific community regarding the subject of the study. The "green" agenda, at the moment, is an urgent issue of the development of the energy sector and the world economy as a whole. The issues of alternative energy are actively discussed at the state, financial and public levels.

Sustainable visioning: Re-framing strategic vision to enable a sustainable corporate transformation

Abstract The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by all UN Member States in 2015, provide a global platform that is increasingly being used by organizations to work strategically and take action in line with social responsibility. This study examines the case of a multinational corporation (MNC) that has moved from sustainability as a standalone business function to sustainability as a strategic orienting principal, in order to better understand how and why this transformation was possible. The paper re-frames and integrates insights and concepts from literature on organizational vision and corporate sustainability. In so doing, sustainable visioning is introduced as the ‘glue’ that holds together organizational commitments that are centered on social, economic and environmental principals. The Danish MNC Orsted serves to demonstrate how sustainable visioning has provided the essential means to strategically reinvent an energy company primarily based on fossil fuels into what is today one of the largest renewable energy companies (by capacity) in the world. More specifically, the study shows how sustainable visioning has been used to (i) spur innovation and new technologies that have substantially reduced the cost of offshore wind production, (ii) grow the business and investment portfolio, and (iii) attract financing and increase the competitive positioning within the growing ecosystem for sustainable development. To conclude, the implications of sustainable visioning are discussed along with the opportunities for future research on the topic.

Changes in Renewable Energy Policy and Their Implications: The Case of Romanian Producers

This paper analyzes the impact of policy changes on the Romanian renewable energy producers. Attracted by a generous subsidy scheme, foreign and domestic investors flocked to the market. Consequently, the sector witnessed remarkable progress, especially in the wind power category. Romania fast approached the national target set by the European Union concerning the share of the country’s energy consumption from renewable sources. However, frequent changes in the support scheme and in the regulations issued by public authorities led to chaos. The aim of the paper was to emphasize the evolution of renewable energy policy in Romania, to investigate the incentives and their effects, and to critically assess the impact of the changes on renewable energy producers. It highlights, by means of an exploratory study and several interviews with executives of renewable energy companies, the challenges and shortcomings of policymaking. The main finding was that the revision of the subsidy scheme and the changes in energy policy that followed are the major determinants for the declining financial performance of renewable energy producers. Subsequently, some recommendations for improved policymaking are suggested, so as to re-establish the trust of investors and to promote the sustainable development of the sector.

Granger causality detection in high-dimensional systems using feedforward neural networks

This paper proposes a novel methodology to detect Granger causality on average in vector autoregressive settings using feedforward neural networks. The approach accommodates unknown dependence structures between elements of high-dimensional multivariate time series with weak and strong persistence. To do this, we propose a two-stage procedure: first, we maximize the transfer of information between input and output variables in the network in order to obtain an optimal number of nodes in the intermediate hidden layers. Second, we apply a novel sparse double group lasso penalty function in order to identify the variables that have the predictive ability and, hence, indicate that Granger causality is present in the others. The penalty function inducing sparsity is applied to the weights that characterize the nodes of the neural network. We show the correct identification of these weights so as to increase sample sizes. We apply this method to the recently created Tobalaba network of renewable energy companies and show the increase in connectivity between companies after the creation of the network using Granger causality measures to map the connections.

An Empirical Analysis of Innovative Strategies and the Growth of Solar Energy Companies in Nairobi County, Kenya.

This study sought to establish the relationship between innovative strategies and firm growth of solar energy corporations in Nairobi county, Kenya. Specifically, the study sought to determine how: process innovation strategies, product innovation strategies, market innovation strategies and organizational innovation strategies influence growth of selected renewable energy organizations in Nairobi county. The study was anchored on three theories; resource-based theory, dynamic capabilities theory, and the diffusion of innovation theory. The study adopted explanatory research design targeting all the 34 renewable energy companies licenced by the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority to exclusively deal in solar consumer devices. As the population was small, census survey was adopted. Primary data was collected through structured questionnaires formulated on a five-point Likert -type scale. The questionnaire was pilot tested in ten renewable energy companies that did not deal exclusively with consumer products. To ensure reliability of the study used Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient. The data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics with the aid of Statistical package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Findings of the study indicated that innovative strategies positively influenced firm growth. Key words : Innovation, Market, Renewable energy, Solar energy, Firm Growth DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/12-30-11 Publication date: October 31 st 2020

Comparative study between measured and estimated wind energy yield

This paper proposes a power-speed (P-V) model of the wind turbine by assuming three different functions for the first performance region; cubic, quadratic and uncorrected cubic. These three functions have been compared with the manufacturer models of five different wind turbines which were installed in five different locations in Jordan; Tafila, Hofa, Fujeij, Al Rajef, and Deahan. The wind turbine of these wind farms are considered as large scale HAWT in the range of Mw. The generated P-V models are developed by applying a new method described in this paper which is basically based on generating a multiplier factor x. In this study, the quadratic model shows the highest correlation compared with the other models. The wind energy yield for the selected wind farms has been estimated by a mathematical modelling based on Rayleigh distribution function, derived in this paper. The energy yield using this mathematical model has been compared with the measured energy output of four wind farms, Tafila, Hofa, Al Rajef, and Deahan. The measured energy were provided by the operators of these wind farms which are: Jordan Wind Project Company(JWPC), Central Electricity Generation Company (CEGC), Green Watts Renewable Energy (GWRC)and Korean Southern Power Company(KOSPO). Results show that the estimated energy using the quadratic wind turbine model for all wind farms are very close to the actual output. Accuracy analysis for the quadratic model resulted in an error of less than 10% between the measured and estimated energy output for all wind farms. The capacity factors for the selected wind farms have been estimated using the quadratic P-V model. Results show that Tafila wind farm has the highest capacity factor which is around 47%.