Role Of Renewable Energy Consumption Research Articles

Economic growth, renewable and nonrenewable energy consumption nexus in India

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the nexus among economic growth, nonrenewable energy consumption and renewable energy consumption in India over the period 1971-2017.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses nonlinear autoregressive distributed lags model and asymmetric causality test to explore nonlinearities in the dynamic interaction among the variables.FindingsThe findings indicate that the impact of nonrenewable energy consumption and renewable energy consumption on the economic growth is asymmetric in both long run and short run. In long run, a positive shock in nonrenewable energy consumption and renewable energy consumption exerts a positive impact on growth. However, the negative shocks in nonrenewable energy consumption produce larger negative effects on the growth. The results of nonlinear causality test indicate a unidirectional causality from nonrenewable energy consumption and renewable energy consumption to economic growth and thus support “growth hypothesis” in context of India.Practical implicationsThe findings imply that policy measures to discourage nonrenewable energy consumption may produce deflationary effects on economic growth in India. Further, the findings demonstrate the potential role of renewable energy consumption in promoting economic growth.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first attempt to explore nonlinearities in the relationship between economic growth and the components of energy consumption in terms of renewable and nonrenewable energy consumption.

Assessment of the role of renewable energy consumption and trade policy on environmental degradation using innovation accounting: Evidence from the US

Renewable energy technologies are promising, yet, very little is known about its role as a limiting factor in fossil fuel-attributable environmental degradation — especially in high-income countries. This study investigated the dynamic effect of renewable energy consumption, economic growth, biocapacity and trade policy on environmental degradation in the United States from 1985Q1 to 2014Q4. To achieve this objective, the study applied an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model to obtain the long-run and short-run dynamic coefficients. Toda-Yamamoto causality test was used to examine the direction of causality while Cholesky decomposition test was for innovative accounting to validate the estimated models. The empirical results divulged that a decline in environmental degradation can be attributed to an increase in renewable energy consumption through its negative effects on ecological footprint. Economic growth and biocapacity were found to exert upward pressure on ecological footprint; however, trade policy exerts downward pressure on ecological footprint. A two-sided causal relationship was established between economic growth and ecological footprint as well as economic growth and biocapacity. In contrast, a one-way causality was confirmed running from trade policy to renewable energy consumption and from renewable energy consumption to biocapacity. The innovative accounting revealed that 14.79% and 8.41% of renewable energy consumption and trade policy caused 0.60% and 9.88% deterioration in the environment. Hence, country-specific energy policies that increase the share of renewable energy in the energy portfolio are recommended.

Renewable Energy Consumption in Africa: Evidence From a Bias Corrected Dynamic Panel

Our study investigates the determinants of renewable energy consumption in Sub-Sahara Africa. We explore the driving factors of renewable energy consumption in the context of carbon intensity for 32 Sub-Saharan African countries from 1990 to 2015. Using carbon emission intensity to identify group-specific heterogeneity, we recognize carbon-efficient and least carbon-efficient countries in the region. By relying on the corrected least squares dummy variable estimator (LSDVC), we provide evidence on the driving factors of renewable energy consumption in Sub-Saharan Africa. Consequently, the findings point to varying degrees of impact on renewable energy consumption in the region. For instance, we observe advancement in technology, quality of governance, economic progress, biomass consumption, and climatic conditions influence renewable energy consumption. With a common occurrence across all groups, the implications indicate environmental, socio-economic, and climatic factors playing an important role in renewable energy consumption. The study further shows that urbanization and economic globalization depress efforts towards renewable energy consumption. Apart from these common factors, other controlling variables including; GDP per capita, environmental awareness, and biomass affect each group differently. We conclude that, policy implications can be drawn from common factors towards harmonization of clean energy markets and developing a policy mix that combines environmental, economic, and social factors in attaining the Sustainable Development Goals.

The impact of renewable energy consumption on income inequality: Evidence from developed countries

Despite of the great number of studies on the impact that income gap has on the environment, we still do not know much about whether renewable energy could be a factor affecting income inequality. The goal of this study is therefore to investigate the impact of renewable energy consumption on income inequality in a panel group of developed economies over the period 1990–2014. To this end, the study employs two dynamic panel data estimation techniques: (i) panel generalized method of moments in which slope coefficients are not allowed to vary, and (ii) the dynamic common correlated effects estimator in which heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence is taken into consideration. The results obtained from the both estimators indicate that an increase in renewable energy consumption leads to a decrease in income inequality. Beyond the environmental concerns, this result confirms that adoption of renewable energy sources will also play a crucial role in reducing income inequality. In addition, it is also proved that the role of renewable energy consumption on income inequality is robust to estimation technique. Policy implications of these results are also discussed.

Heterogeneous role of renewable energy consumption in economic growth and emissions reduction: evidence from a panel quantile regression.

This paper focuses on the heterogeneity of renewable energy consumption and economic growth and emissions by using panel quantile regression models and based on the data from 33 countries during the period of 1990-2016. The approach in this paper is to consider the heterogeneity of the distribution, and results reveal a long-term equilibrium relationship among renewable energy consumption, economic growth and emissions. The role of renewable energy consumption in economic growth and emissions is heterogeneous, and the relationship between renewable energy consumption and economic growth is W-shaped. The relationship between renewable energy consumption and emissions has an inverted N-shape, and the relationship between non-renewable energy consumption and emission is a √-shaped curve. This paper supports the growth hypothesis and EKC. In addition, the energy consumption structure should be changed, and the use of renewable energy should be encouraged. This policy not only meets energy and economic growth demands but also improves environmental quality. In addition, countries with different levels of economic growth and emissions should adopt different policies instead of using the same policy.

A Distributed Double-Consensus Algorithm for Residential We-Energy

This paper investigates the residential energy management problems in the power-heat-coupling system. For better solving this issue, based on the novel concept of We-Energy (WE) for energy Internet (EI), this paper proposes a residential WE (R-WE) framework faced by the terminal users who play an important role in renewable energy consumption. Inspired by the full-duplex feature of R-WE, the power and heat supply-demand balance constraints are fulfilled in a regional unit of EI, but it may be inequality constraints for corresponding consumer, producer, or WE operation modes in only one R-WE. The R-WE framework can be classified into four operation modes, which is island mode, consumer mode, producer mode, and WE mode. On this basis, the R-WE models cooperate to achieve the objective of minimizing the operation costs, smoothing out the loads’ variations, and renewable resource fluctuations. Specifically, the R-WE framework with respect to the heat-power-coupling problem can be solved in the distributed double-consensus algorithm (DDCA), which is designed two sets of consensus algorithms by using four completely different consensus variables to calculate the power and heat multipliers, evaluate the power and heat generations and, thereby, further obtain the power mismatches of electricity and heat. Also, the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) optimal conditions of the proposed DDCA is further proved. Meanwhile, a novel projection operation method for combined heat and power devices is designed to take the infeasible solutions mapped into the feasible region. Finally, the simulation results in different cases further demonstrate that the proposed R-WE frame can be an appropriate method to analyze the terminal consumers and harmonize multienergy producers in the process of constructing EI projects. And an R-WE framework of the campus has experimented with minority loads in island mode.

Moderating and mediating role of renewable energy consumption, FDI inflows, and economic growth on carbon dioxide emissions: evidence from robust least square estimator.

The relationship between renewable energy consumption (REC), foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows, economic growth, and their resulting impact on CO2 emissions is widely discussed area in energy and environmental literature; however, there is an unseen literature on moderation and mediation effect of per capita income and FDI inflows with the renewable energy consumption on CO2 emissions in developing countries like Pakistan, which is being evaluated in this study by using a consistent time series data for a period of 1975-2016. The results show that economic growth and FDI inflows both increase CO2 emissions, while REC substantially decreases CO2 emissions during the study time period. The results do not support the inverted U-shaped Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis for per capita income (and FDI inflows) and per capita CO2 emissions in a country. The results supported 'pollution haven hypothesis' where FDI inflows damage the natural flora of the country. By inclusion of moderation and mediation effect of per capita income and FDI inflows with the REC on CO2 emissions averted the positive impact of REC, and converted into negative externality, where environmental sustainability agenda is compromised by lower environmental regulations and unsustainable production techniques that increase country's economic growth. The study concludes that by adding REC in existing energy portfolio may help to reduce CO2 emissions while strict environmental compliance may disregard the negative externality of unsustainable production and it will support to achieve green development programmes in a country.

The role of renewable and non-renewable energy consumption in CO2 emissions: a disaggregate analysis of Pakistan.

The energy sector has become the largest contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Among these GHG emissions, most threatening is CO2 emission which comes from the consumption of fossil fuels. This empirical work analyzes the roles of renewable energy consumption and non-renewable energy consumption in CO2 emissions in Pakistan. The empirical evidence is based on an auto-regressive distributive lag (ARDL) model of data from 1970 to 2016. The disaggregate analysis reveals that renewable energy consumption has an insignificant impact on CO2 emission in Pakistan and that, in the non-renewable energy model, natural gas and coal are the main contributors to the level of pollution in Pakistan. Economic growth positively contributes to CO2 emission in the renewable energy model but not in the non-renewable energy model. Policies that emphasize the contribution of renewable energy to economic growth and that add more clean energy into the energy mix are suggested.

Testing environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in G7 countries: the role of renewable energy consumption and trade.

This study has been conducted to examine the impact of trade, economic growth, and renewable energy on environmental degradation in G7 countries. The data consist of the years 1991-2016. We employed the panel unit root test and co-integration test, along with cross-sectional dependence and cross-sectionally augmented IPS unit root test by Pesaran (J Appl Econ 22:265-312, 2007). We also employed dynamic ordinary least squares, fully modified ordinary least squares, and fixed effect ordinary least squares regression. The result concluded that all the variables are co-integrated in the long run and all the variables create a significant effect on CO2 emission. This study implies that economic growth and trade increases the CO2 emission in the long run whereas the renewable energy consumption reduces the CO2 emission in the long run. The result also provides support for the Environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in G7 countries.

Innovations and renewables in the Nordic countries: A panel causality approach

Most studies on the relationship between technological innovations and renewable energy consumption have focused on the role of technological innovations in the link between energy consumption and economic growth, with no deep analysis of direct causality between renewable energy and technological innovation. This study examines the direct causal relationship between technological innovation and renewables in the four Nordic countries by using the bootstrap panel Granger causality approach that accounts for both cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity across countries. The results show a unidirectional causality running from technological innovations to renewable energy in Denmark and Norway, and a unidirectional causality running from renewables to innovations in Sweden and Finland. The main reasons of the divergent results could be energy mix, role of nuclear energy, the different economic structures, and role of policies. The policy implications are that technological innovations play an effective role in renewable energy consumption and renewable energy itself spurs innovations. Thus, speeding up the transition to renewable energy requires investment in technological innovations.

The role of renewable energy consumption and commercial services trade in carbon dioxide reduction: Evidence from 25 developing countries

Developing countries play a dominant role in global carbon emissions. This study, for the first time, uses a panel of 25 major developing countries during the years 1996–2012 to explore the role of renewable energy consumption and commercial services trade in generating carbon emissions. The share and size of renewables consumption are both analysed for comparison purpose. Granger causality tests show that long-run bidirectional Granger causalities exist between economic growth, renewable energy consumption, international commercial services trade, and carbon emissions. Panel co-integration tests identify that long-run equilibrium exist between analysis variables. We also apply fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) for panel estimates. The Empirical results indicate that economic growth has significant effects on carbon emissions; the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis is verified; increasing the share of renewable energy consumption contributes to carbon reduction; increasing the size of renewable energy consumption contrarily raised emissions; expanding commercial services trade could reduce carbon emissions. Our findings suggest that developing countries should promote commercial services trade and the share of renewable energy consumption for low-carbon economic growth.

Does renewable energy ensure environmental quality in favour of economic growth? Empirical evidence from China’s renewable development

An economy in transition that is growing fast coupled with rising population requires more energy. Economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions in China have been increasing together over the past several years. Exploring the dynamic relationship among these variables has a lot of policy implications related to environment–growth–energy linkage. This paper explores the interrelationship among CO2 emissions, economic growth, disaggregated energy (fossil fuel and renewable) consumption and population. The broad objective of the paper is to examine the potential role of renewable energy consumption to ensure environmental quality in favour of growth. Data spanned from 1971 to 2013 sourced from World Bank data base. The results from auto regression distributed lag suggests that fossil fuel energy consumption increases CO2 emissions, both in the short and the long run, but renewable energy consumption reduces CO2 emissions in the long run. Although economic growth and population increase CO2 emissions in the short run, their impacts on CO2 emissions in the long run diminish, validating the environmental carbon Kuznets curve hypothesis in China. Short run vector error correction mechanism Granger causality results reveal unidirectional causality from both fossil fuel and renewable energy consumption to CO2 emissions revealing growth hypothesis. Bidirectional causality exists between both energies and economic growth confirming the role of energy on economic expansion vis-a-vis the role of income on energy consumption. The findings have important policy implications for harmonizing economic growth vis-a-vis environmental quality and thus climate change mitigation with a higher proportion of energy from renewables.

The significance of renewable energy use for economic output and environmental protection: evidence from the Next 11 developing economies.

Increasing economic activities in developing economies raise demand for energy mainly sourced from conventional sources. The consumption of more conventional energy will have a significant negative impact on the environment. Therefore, attention of policy makers has recently shifted towards the promotion of renewable energy generation and uses across economic activities to ensure low carbon economy. Given the recent scenario, in this paper, we aim to examine the role of renewable energy consumption on the economic output and CO2 emissions of the next fastest developing economies of the world. The study employs several robust panel econometric models by using annual data from 1990 to 2012. Empirical findings confirm the significant long-run association among the variables. Similarly, results show that renewable energy consumption positively contributes to economic output and has an adverse effect on CO2 emissions. Given our findings, we suggest policy makers of those economies to initiate further effective policies to promote more renewable energy generation and uses across economic activities to ensure sustainable economic development.

The dynamic impact of renewable energy and institutions on economic output and CO2 emissions across regions

We provide a comprehensive and robust analysis of the role of renewable energy consumption and institutions on economic growth and in combating CO2 emissions across the regions and income groups. For our empirical model, we use annual data from 85 developed and developing economies across the world over the period from 1991 to 2012. We employ various econometric techniques from panel estimations to obtain the robust results. Our findings confirm that there is significant heterogeneity across the sub-samples. Overall, results from the system-GMM and fully modified OLS indicate that the growth of renewable energy consumption has a significant positive and negative impact on economic output and CO2 emissions, respectively. Institutions have a positive influence on economic growth and a reducing effect on CO2 emissions. Our findings suggest that both renewable energy deployment and institutions are significant in promoting economic growth and reducing CO2 emissions. Finally, we suggest that institutional alignment is necessary to promote the use of renewable energy across economic activities to ensure sustainable economic development.

The Role of Renewable Energy Consumption and Trade: Environmental Kuznets Curve Analysis for Sub‐Saharan Africa Countries

AbstractBased on the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis, this paper uses panel cointegration techniques to investigate the short‐ and long‐run relationship between CO2 emissions, gross domestic product (GDP), renewable energy consumption and international trade for a panel of 24 sub‐Saharan Africa countries over the period 1980–2010. Short‐run Granger causality results reveal that there is a bidirectional causality between emissions and economic growth; bidirectional causality between emissions and real exports; unidirectional causality from real imports to emissions; and unidirectional causality runs from trade (exports or imports) to renewable energy consumption. There is an indirect short‐run causality running from emissions to renewable energy and an indirect short‐run causality from GDP to renewable energy. In the long‐run, the error correction term is statistically significant for emissions, renewable energy consumption and trade. The long‐run estimates suggest that the inverted U‐shaped EKC hypothesis is not supported for these countries; exports have a positive impact on CO2 emissions, whereas imports have a negative impact on CO2 emissions. As a policy recommendation, sub‐Saharan Africa countries should expand their trade exchanges particularly with developed countries and try to maximize their benefit from technology transfer occurring when importing capital goods as this may increase their renewable energy consumption and reduce CO2 emissions.

Evaluation of the environmental performance of printing and writing paper using life cycle assessment

The paper identifies and assesses the potential environmental burdens associated with the life cycle of printing and writing paper produced in Portugal from Eucalyptus globulus and consumed in Germany. Life cycle assessment methodology is applied in accordance with International Organization for Standardization standards. The life cycle of printing and writing paper covers the following stages: forest, pulp production, paper production, final disposal, energy production, chemical production and transports. The results suggest that pulp production processes have an important contribution to water emissions, resulting in a major contribution to eutrophication. Besides, it plays a major role in renewable energy consumption. Energy production in the grid, printing and writing paper production and transports contribute significantly to air emissions and to non‐renewable energy consumption, and consequently to global warming, acidification and non‐renewable resource depletion. Wastepaper landfilling assumes the predominant role in photochemical oxidant formation. Useful information is provided regarding the stages of the life cycle where improvements should be done in order to achieve an effective reduction of the environmental burdens.