• Energy Research

The objective of this article is to analyze and empirically validate the differential effects in the daily schedules of the induced electricity prices by selling bids for three different technologies, namely hydraulic, thermal and renewable energy sources (RES), in hourly values, by daily observations for the year 2018. To achieve this objective, we employ an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model-bound testing approach The results of the ADRL-ECM method, which also reports the long-run analysis, show that (a) the renewable and thermal technologies positively and significantly affect the electricity price for Endesa and Hidroelétrica del Cantábrico generators and (b) the hydraulic technology impacts negatively the electricity price, both at a 1% level of significance. In addition, following a long-term perspective it must be highlighted that RES negatively impact the price of electricity with a 1% level of significance for the Iberdrola, E.ON Energy, Unión Fenosa and EDP Energy of Portugal generators. However based on a short-term perspective, the results report a positive effect between the quantities traded by hydraulic and thermal technologies on the electricity price for Endesa, Iberdrola, Hidroelétrica del Cantábrico and EDP Energy of Portugal, at a 1% level of significance.

Abstract This paper applies the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to cointegration to investigate the dynamic causal relationships between CO2 emissions per capita, real GDP per capita, per capita non-renewable electricity production and per-capita renewable electricity production, and international trade in the case of Italy from 1960 to 2011. We find cointegration among these variables in the presence of possible structural breaks and we overcome the problem of multicollinearity in the research design. The environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis is validated analytically because the estimated pollution model indicates that economic growth leads to less pollution over time. Per capita renewable electricity production reduces the level of CO2 emissions per capita in the short-run and in the long-run, whereas international trade only impacts positively upon carbon dioxide emissions per capita in the long-run. International trade Granger causes CO2 emissions per capita and non-renewable electricity production per capita. Moreover the results depict the existence of the long-run unidirectional Granger causality relation running from output per capita to renewable electricity production per capita, and from non-renewable electricity production per capita to renewable electricity production per capita. The findings indicate that renewable electricity production is a key solution in reducing pollutant emissions over time. This result should be of concern to policy makers.

The present work aims to quantitatively measure the relationships between the price of energy commodities, coal, gas natural, fuel oil, carbon prices and the price of wholesale electricity in the Iberian Electricity Market, using 2018 daily data. To examine this relationship, we considered both techniques, Markov-Switching Dynamic Regression and Markov-Switching Autoregressive Regression, and proposed two equations with electricity price and coal price as dependent variables. According to the parameters estimated in the model, coal and gas affect the cost of electricity moderately at times in the day that are highly recessive. During the 2018 daily periods analysed, the relative changes in gas and coal prices led to a loss of competitiveness of natural gas, increased by the moderate evolution of carbon prices, and therefore the cost of coal fell sharply in the recent past. The evolution of both time-varying transition probabilities and energy commodities prices variables is informative. The transition probabilities of staying in the same state change throughout our sample of energy commodities and wholesale electricity prices.

Abstract The consumption of electricity has been increasing in the last decades, imposing multiple challenges at environmental, economic, and social level. Therefore, energy efficiency in several sectors of the economy has become one of the main goals for policy makers and society in general. In addition, the increase of an ageing population and the changes in their consumption patterns also impact the electricity consumption in the residential sector creating additional challenges in this sector. These challenges are even more notorious in Europe where this demographic shift is already moving at an alarming pace. This paper aims to assess the efficiency of electricity consumption of the households of an ageing population in the 28 countries of the European Union for the period between 2005 and 2016, through the employment of the method Data Envelopment Analysis. Main results indicate that the countries which have higher investment in energy saving measures and renewable electricity generation present high efficiency scores for the whole period under analysis. On the other hand, the member states with a larger percentage of an ageing population, are also the ones presenting the lowest efficiency scores. For an improved performance, policies should account for the right combination between the households’ electricity consumption efficiency and policies that address the needs of the elderly at a local level.

Abstract The objective of this work is to identify the relevant factors that have influenced the changes in the level of CO2 emissions among four groups (eastern, western, northern and southern) of European countries. Our results show that CO2 emissions are correlated with the energy consumption of the economy for the group of countries under analysis, which is determined by the change of population among the various countries. Similarly, renewable energy consumption is also determined by the size and structure of the countries, as reflected by the value added to the economy. When comparing the results of the post-Kyoto period to the previous period for the four groups of European countries, one concludes that there are clear improvements in the reductions of emissions. This resulted primarily from changes to the energy mix, switching to cleaner fuels for end-user energy production (a volte-face in the behaviour of the energy mix effect), while the changes in the factors driving emissions resulted from a reduction in the usage of fossil fuels for producing energy. In general, the relative contributions of these two factors show the importance of the impact of changing the structure of the mix for producing energy, with a view to complying with the targets for reductions in CO2 emissions, reflecting the value placed on the significant impact assigned to emissions levels.

Abstract This study employs the decomposition analysis of CO2 emissions for the period from 2000 to 2012. This technique computes five effects that drive changes in CO2 emissions in five subsectors of the Portuguese tourism industry. The energy over fixed capital, the capital over labour productivity, and the tourism intensity are the most important effects in accommodation, food and beverage services. The carbonisation index constitutes an important effect in transports. The capital over labour productivity intensity effect has the strongest influence, while the carbonisation index exerts a positive influence upon CO2 emissions in tour operators and travel agencies. The energy over gross fixed capital and tourism intensity effects predominate in cultural, sports and recreational services. The results of the econometric analysis further confirm the statistical significance of the aforementioned effects. Policy recommendations are provided.

Abstract This study was developed according to a two-step approach. In the first step, we provide an investigation of the changes in eco-efficiency under constant and variable return to scale, while on a second step the evaluation of the decoupling elasticity will be given. The impacts of energy, economic and environmental determinants (inputs) on the performance indicators of eco-efficiency were calculated as the inverse of the carbon intensity (ratio of the GDP over the CO2 emissions, both from the World Development Indicators database), the changes in eco-efficiency and the decoupling elasticity between CO2 emissions, and economic growth changes. Data was used for 16 Latin America countries, according to five-year periods, from 1994 to 2013. For all the five-time span considered, it is worth noting, that the degree of technical efficiency for the Latin America countries is lower than the degree of technological efficiency, thus indicating that a portion of the overall inefficiency is due to the fact that these countries are producing below the production frontier rather than to an inefficient use of technology. On average, the results have confirmed that the technological scale change in energy production is the dominant factor influencing the optimal production frontier in the sample of countries under analysis. Complementarily, according to the mixed results from the decoupling analysis, we may conclude that the increase/decrease of the CO2 per capita emissions was due to other economic and environmental factors rather than to a negative/positive effect of the GDP growth rate.

Abstract Given the relevance of energy and pollution issues for industrialised countries and the importance of industry and energy sectors to the achievement of their economic and environmental goals, it is important to know if there is a common pattern of emissions intensity, fuel intensity and energy intensity, between industries, to know if it justifies a more specific application of energy policies between sectors, which sectors have the greatest potential for reducing energy use and which are the long term effects of those specific variables on the mitigation of emissions. We found that although there is literature on decomposition of effects that affect emissions, the study of the convergence and of the relationships between these variables does not include ratios or effects that result from the decomposition analysis. Thus, the above questions are not answered, much less for the Portuguese reality. The purpose of this paper is to study: (i) the existence of convergence of some relevant ratios as Carbon Dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions intensity, CO 2 emissions by fossil fuel consumption, fossil fuel intensity, energy intensity and economic structure, between industry and energy sectors in Portugal, and (ii) the influence that the consumption of fossil fuels, the consumption of aggregate energy and GDP have on CO 2 emissions, and the influence that the ratios in which CO 2 emissions intensity decomposes can affect that variable, using an econometric approach, namely Panel corrected standard errors estimator. We concluded that there is sigma convergence for all ratios with exception of fossil fuel intensity. Gamma convergence verifies for all ratios, with exception of CO 2 emissions by fossil fuel. From the econometric approach we concluded that the considered variables have a significant importance in explaining CO 2 emissions and CO 2 emissions intensity.

This study aims to evaluate the economic and environmental efficiency of Asian and African economies. In the model proposed, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is considered as the desired output and Greenhouse Gases (GHG), like carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, as the undesirable output. Capital, labor, fossil fuels, and renewable energy consumption are regarded as inputs, and the GDP/CO2 ratio is the output, by using a log-linear Translog production function and using data from 2005 until 2018, including 22 Asian and 22 African countries. Results evidence cross-countries heterogeneity among production inputs, namely labor, capital, and type of energy use and its efficiency. The models complement each other and are based on different distributional assumptions and estimation methods while providing a picture of Eco-efficiency in Asian and African economies. Labor and renewable energy share increase technical Eco-efficiency, while fixed capital decreases it under time-variant models. Technical improvements in Eco-efficiency are verified through time considering the time variable into the model estimations, replacing fossil fuels with renewable sources. An inverted U-shaped Eco-efficiency function is found concerning the share of fossil fuel consumption. Important policy implications are drawn from the results regarding the empirical results.