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East versus West: Energy transition and energy intensity in coal-rich Europe, 1830-2000

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  • Hana Nielsen

    (Lund University)

Abstract

"The paper examines energy consumption in Britain, Germany and Czechoslovakia over 130 years, including both traditional and modern energy carriers. The article is based on new series of en- ergy consumption for Czechoslovakia that includes traditional energy sources, and, which is compared to energy use in other coal-rich countries in Europe: Germany and Britain. Changes in energy con- sumption are decomposed into effects from population growth, economic growth and energy intensity. There are two major findings from the long-run transitions we identify. First, by exploring the coal tran- sition for coal-rich versus coal-poor countries in Europe, we find some remarkable similarities between both Germany and Czechoslovakia. We show that when we include Germany, England and the Czech Republic there is in an inverted U-curve in energy intensity, even when traditional energy carriers are taken into account, in contrast with results for four coal-poor countries in the Northern and Southern parts of Europe, where energy intensity was either declining or staying fairly constant in the long run. Secondly, the paper identifies a different transition path after the WII, a period in which Czechoslo- vakia’s energy intensity diverged from the trend observed in previous decades and also in Germany and England. Through a more detailed decomposition of the Czechoslovak energy intensity after 1950, we argue that the rise in energy intensity was a consequence of multiple forces, including high industrial energy use, structural change towards metals and chemicals (the backbone of central plan- ning) and inefficiencies in energy use in those two sectors as well as high transformation losses of the electricity production. We suggest the central-planning system to be the main driver of this develop- ment, but with effects that are particular to some sectors rather than spread across all energy use."

Suggested Citation

  • Hana Nielsen, 2016. "East versus West: Energy transition and energy intensity in coal-rich Europe, 1830-2000," Working Papers 16024, Economic History Society.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehs:wpaper:16024
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