Can renewable energy development facilitate China's sustainable energy transition? Perspective from Energy Trilemma

Zhaofu Yang, Hong Liu, Yongna Yuan and Muhua Li

Energy, 2024, vol. 304, issue C

Abstract: Comprehensive assessment of energy systems and the roadmap for a sustainable energy transition are becoming more and more important themes in academic research to mitigate climate risk. This study establishes an evaluation system for the level of energy trilemma (ET) at the provincial level in China and analyzes the impact and mechanism of renewable energy development on ET. The results show that (1) the national ET index shows an upward trend, and the energy system has been continuously optimized, albeit with spatial disparities across provinces. (2) Renewable energy development positively impacts ET, and the positive impacts of hydropower generation are significant. (3) The results of the mechanism analysis indicate that renewable energy development can indirectly promote sustainable energy transition by improving technological innovation and green productivity. (4) Under inter-provincial electricity transfer, the impact of renewable energy on optimizing the ET in net electricity exporting regions is less significant compared to that in net electricity importing regions. Therefore, it is crucial to focus on the synergistic development of energy security, energy equity, and environmental sustainability, especially by supporting net electricity exporting regions, to promote a more balanced and sustainable development of the energy system.

Keywords: Energy trilemma; Renewable energy development; Energy systems; Inter-provincial electricity transfer (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544224019340
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:304:y:2024:i:c:s0360544224019340

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2024.132160

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().