Renewable Energy in the Electricity Sector and GDP per Capita in the European Union

Mihaela Simionescu, Yuriy Bilan, Emília Krajňáková, Dalia Streimikiene and Stanisław Gędek
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Emília Krajňáková: Faculty of Social and Economic Relations, Alexander Dubček University of Trenčín, Studentska 3, 911 50 Trenčín, Slovakia
Dalia Streimikiene: Kaunas Faculty, Vilnius University, Muitines 8, LT-44280 Kaunas, Lithuania
Stanisław Gędek: Faculty of Management, Rzeszow University of Technology, 35-959 Rzeszów, Poland

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 13, 1-15

Abstract: Considering that the European Directive has imposed that at least 20% of the total energy should come from renewable energy sources (RES) by 2020 already and the specific targets for each European Union Member State, this paper attempts to assess the importance of GDP per capita in realizing these targets and also the effects of the RES share in electricity. Contrary to previous research, this paper does not consider the connection between economic growth and RES, but rather the potential connection between the share of RES in electricity and the real GDP per capita. The panel data models indicated to a positive, but very low impact of GDP per capita on the share of RES in electricity in the period of 2007–2017 in the case of the EU countries, except Luxembourg that has outlier values of GDP per capita. However, causality between the two variables was not identified. Some groups of countries were described according to these variables using cluster analysis. Future research should focus on the extension of this model by including other important variables such as RES potential available in the countries with specific geographical conditions.

Keywords: renewable energy sources; electricity; GDP per capita (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (31)

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