Drivers promoting renewable energy: A dynamic panel approach

We study the commitment to renewable energy sources, focusing on a set of 24 European countries, and applying panel dynamic estimators. Europe is a leading player in the fight against climate change, and the estimators we use reveal themselves to be appropriate in handling the persistency effect on renewables. The level of renewable energy use in the previous period has a positive and highly significant effect on the current level of use. Traditional energy sources restrain the impetus towards renewables. Social awareness of sustainability, climate change mitigation and CO2 reduction targets are not enough to motivate the switch from traditional to renewables energy sources. Income and prices of fossil-based fuels were not significant for the development of renewables in the period from 1990 to 2006, suggesting that it was not the market that encouraged renewables.

[1]  Chien-Ming Huang,et al.  Threshold effect of the economic growth rate on the renewable energy development from a change in energy price: Evidence from OECD countries , 2009 .

[2]  Y. Wang.  Renewable electricity in Sweden: an analysis of policy and regulations , 2006 .

[3]  Perry Sadorsky.  Renewable energy consumption, CO2 emissions and oil prices in the G7 countries , 2009 .

[4]  Dalia Streimikiene,et al.  Promotion of renewable energy in Baltic States , 2007 .

[5]  E. Michalena,et al.  Local challenges in the promotion of renewable energy sources: The case of Crete , 2009 .

[6]  Fredric C. Menz,et al.  The effectiveness of different policy regimes for promoting wind power: Experiences from the states , 2006 .

[7]  J. Alavalapati,et al.  Is the choice of renewable portfolio standards random , 2007 .

[8]  Rolf Wüstenhagen,et al.  Green Energy Market Development in Germany: Effective Public Policy and Emerging Customer Demand , 2006 .

[9]  Ashwani Kumar,et al.  Renewable energy in India: Current status and future potentials , 2010 .

[10]  Danyel Reiche,et al.  Renewable Energy Policies in the Gulf countries: A case study of the carbon-neutral "Masdar City" in Abu Dhabi , 2010 .

[11]  D. Popp,et al.  Renewable Energy Policies and Technological Innovation: Evidence Based on Patent Counts , 2008 .

[12]  Detlef P. van Vuuren,et al.  Oil and natural gas prices and greenhouse gas emission mitigation , 2009 .

[13]  Pravin K. Trivedi,et al.  Microeconometrics Using Stata , 2009 .

[14]  S. Awerbuch,et al.  Exploiting the oil–GDP effect to support renewables deployment , 2006 .

[15]  Benjamin K. Sovacool,et al.  Rejecting Renewables: The Socio-Technical Impediments to Renewable Electricity in the United States , 2008, Renewable Energy.

[16]  Sedat Keleş,et al.  Global warming and renewable energy sources for sustainable development: A case study in Turkey , 2008 .

[17]  A. Jäger-Waldau,et al.  Photovoltaics and renewable energies in Europe , 2007 .

[18]  Giovanni Bruno,et al.  Approximating the bias of the LSDV estimator for dynamic unbalanced panel data models , 2005 .

[19]  M. Arellano,et al.  Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations , 1991 .

[20]  R. Wiser,et al.  Accounting for fuel price risk when comparing renewable to gas-fired generation: the role of forward natural gas prices , 2004 .

[21]  R. Wiser,et al.  Policies and market factors driving wind power development in the United States , 2005 .

[22]  M. Frondel,et al.  Economic impacts from the promotion of renewable energy technologies: The German experience , 2010 .

[23]  Perry Sadorsky.  Renewable energy consumption and income in emerging economies , 2009 .

[24]  L. Nilsson,et al.  Renewable energy costs, potentials, barriers: conceptual issues. , 2010 .

[25]  Mark T. van Wees,et al.  Green electricity policies in the Netherlands: an analysis of policy decisions , 2006 .

[26]  Cliff Chen,et al.  Weighing the costs and benefits of state renewables portfolio standards in the United States: A comparative analysis of state-level policy impact projections , 2009 .

[27]  Rolf Wüstenhagen,et al.  Social acceptance of renewable energy innovation: An introduction to the concept , 2007 .

[28]  Yemane Wolde-Rufael,et al.  CO2 emissions, nuclear energy, renewable energy and economic growth in the US , 2010 .

[29]  Sanya Carley.  State Renewable Energy Electricity Policies: An Empirical Evaluation of Effectiveness , 2009 .

[30]  R. Blundell,et al.  Initial Conditions and Moment Restrictions in Dynamic Panel Data Models , 1998 .

[31]  Lin Gan,et al.  Green electricity market development: Lessons from Europe and the US , 2007 .