Energy Use Efficiency Past-to-Future Evaluation: An International Comparison

Chia-Nan Wang, Thi-Duong Nguyen and Min-Chun Yu
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Chia-Nan Wang: Departments of Industrial Engineering and Management, National Kaohsiung University of Sciences and Technology, Kaohsiung 80778, Taiwan
Thi-Duong Nguyen: Departments of Industrial Engineering and Management, National Kaohsiung University of Sciences and Technology, Kaohsiung 80778, Taiwan
Min-Chun Yu: Departments of Business Administration, National Kaohsiung University of Sciences and Technology, Kaohsiung 80778, Taiwan

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 19, 1-15

Abstract: Despite the many benefits that energy consumption brings to the economy, consuming energy also leads nations to expend more resources on environmental pollution. Therefore, energy efficiency has been proposed as a solution to improve national economic competitiveness and sustainability. However, the growth in energy demand is accelerating while policy efforts to boost energy efficiency are slowing. To solve this problem, the efficiency gains in countries where energy consumption efficiency is of the greatest concern such as China, India, the United States, and Europe, especially, emerging economies, is central. Additionally, governments must take greater policy actions. Therefore, this paper studied 25 countries from Asia, the Americas, and Europe to develop a method combining the grey method (GM) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) slack-based measure model (SMB) to measure and forecast the energy efficiency, so that detailed energy efficiency evaluation can be made from the past to the future; moreover, this method can be extended to more countries around the world. The results of this study reveal that European countries have a higher energy efficiency than countries in Americas (except the United States) and Asian countries. Our findings also show that an excess of total energy consumption is the main reason causing the energy inefficiency in most countries. This study contributes to policymaking and strategy makers by sharing the understanding of the status of energy efficiency and providing insights for the future.

Keywords: energy efficiency; data envelopment analysis; super-SBM; grey model; energy consumption (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 (4)

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