IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v337y2023ics0306261923002556.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Promoting variable renewable energy integration: The moderating effect of digitalization

Author

Listed:
  • Lin, Boqiang
  • Huang, Chenchen

Abstract

The development of renewable energy is a crucial strategy for attaining carbon neutrality and mitigating climate change. Digitalization is regarded as a virtual way to realize energy transition. However, the role of digitalization in promoting variable renewable energy integration lacks empirical evidence. To answer the question, this study measured the contribution of digital industries to the electricity sector in 33 countries from 2000 to 2019 using the multi-regional input–output table. A two-way fixed effect panel model was constructed to examine the moderating effect of digitalization in the causal relationship between renewable energy installation and generation. Robustness tests have proved the validity of the study's findings. Results suggest that digitalization has a positive moderating effect on renewable energy integration. And the moderating effect is asymmetric. When the digital input exceeds 4.2659%, there will be a further increase in renewable energy integration. Moreover, the moderating effect of digitalization still exists in developed countries, but no statistically significant results have been found in developing countries. The research findings provide a valuable reference for policymakers and stakeholders and offer empirical evidence and policy inspiration for promoting the renewable energy development and achieving carbon neutrality.

Suggested Citation

  • Lin, Boqiang & Huang, Chenchen, 2023. "Promoting variable renewable energy integration: The moderating effect of digitalization," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 337(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:337:y:2023:i:c:s0306261923002556
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2023.120891
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261923002556
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2023.120891?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Awijen, Haithem & Belaïd, Fateh & Zaied, Younes Ben & Hussain, Nazim & Lahouel, Béchir Ben, 2022. "Renewable energy deployment in the MENA region: Does innovation matter?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    2. Park, BeomJun & Hur, Jin, 2018. "Spatial prediction of renewable energy resources for reinforcing and expanding power grids," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 757-772.
    3. Li, Zheng & Luan, Ranran & Lin, Boqiang, 2022. "The trend and factors affecting renewable energy distribution and disparity across countries," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(PB).
    4. Madurai Elavarasan, Rajvikram & Pugazhendhi, Rishi & Jamal, Taskin & Dyduch, Joanna & Arif, M.T. & Manoj Kumar, Nallapaneni & Shafiullah, GM & Chopra, Shauhrat S. & Nadarajah, Mithulananthan, 2021. "Envisioning the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through the lens of energy sustainability (SDG 7) in the post-COVID-19 world," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    5. Li, Ke & Lin, Boqiang, 2015. "Measuring green productivity growth of Chinese industrial sectors during 1998–2011," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 279-295.
    6. Chen, Chaoyi & Pinar, Mehmet & Stengos, Thanasis, 2020. "Renewable energy consumption and economic growth nexus: Evidence from a threshold model," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    7. Asante, Dennis & He, Zheng & Adjei, Nana Osae & Asante, Bismark, 2020. "Exploring the barriers to renewable energy adoption utilising MULTIMOORA- EDAS method," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    8. Marcel P. Timmer & Erik Dietzenbacher & Bart Los & Robert Stehrer & Gaaitzen J. Vries, 2015. "An Illustrated User Guide to the World Input–Output Database: the Case of Global Automotive Production," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(3), pages 575-605, August.
    9. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Sinha, Avik & Raghutla, Chandrashekar & Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2022. "Decomposing scale and technique effects of financial development and foreign direct investment on renewable energy consumption," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(PB).
    10. Razmi, Seyedeh Fatemeh & Ramezanian Bajgiran, Bahareh & Behname, Mehdi & Salari, Taghi Ebrahimi & Razmi, Seyed Mohammad Javad, 2020. "The relationship of renewable energy consumption to stock market development and economic growth in Iran," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 2019-2024.
    11. Wang, Qiang & Li, Shuyu & Pisarenko, Zhanna, 2020. "Heterogeneous effects of energy efficiency, oil price, environmental pressure, R&D investment, and policy on renewable energy -- evidence from the G20 countries," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).
    12. Lv, Zhike & Liu, Wangxin & Xu, Ting, 2022. "Evaluating the impact of information and communication technology on renewable energy consumption: A spatial econometric approach," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 1-12.
    13. Ajanovic, Amela & Hiesl, Albert & Haas, Reinhard, 2020. "On the role of storage for electricity in smart energy systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    14. Chen, Chaoyi & Pinar, Mehmet & Stengos, Thanasis, 2021. "Determinants of renewable energy consumption: Importance of democratic institutions," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 75-83.
    15. Samira Tabrizian, 2019. "Technological innovation to achieve sustainable development—Renewable energy technologies diffusion in developing countries," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(3), pages 537-544, May.
    16. Bano, Sadia & Liu, Lu & Khan, Anwar, 2022. "Dynamic influence of aging, industrial innovations, and ICT on tourism development and renewable energy consumption in BRICS economies," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 192(C), pages 431-442.
    17. Hu, Hui & Xie, Nan & Fang, Debin & Zhang, Xiaoling, 2018. "The role of renewable energy consumption and commercial services trade in carbon dioxide reduction: Evidence from 25 developing countries," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 1229-1244.
    18. Giovanni Rinaldi & Philipp R. Thies & Lars Johanning, 2021. "Current Status and Future Trends in the Operation and Maintenance of Offshore Wind Turbines: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-28, April.
    19. Handayani, Kamia & Anugrah, Pinto & Goembira, Fadjar & Overland, Indra & Suryadi, Beni & Swandaru, Akbar, 2022. "Moving beyond the NDCs: ASEAN pathways to a net-zero emissions power sector in 2050," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 311(C).
    20. Du, Kerui & Cheng, Yuanyuan & Yao, Xin, 2021. "Environmental regulation, green technology innovation, and industrial structure upgrading: The road to the green transformation of Chinese cities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    21. Lin, Boqiang & Liu, Xia, 2013. "Electricity tariff reform and rebound effect of residential electricity consumption in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 240-247.
    22. Wang, Jianda & Wang, Bo & Dong, Kangyin & Dong, Xiucheng, 2022. "How does the digital economy improve high-quality energy development? The case of China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    23. Shahnazi, Rouhollah & Dehghan Shabani, Zahra, 2020. "Do renewable energy production spillovers matter in the EU?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 786-796.
    24. Somoye, Oluwatoyin Abidemi & Ozdeser, Huseyin & Seraj, Mehdi, 2022. "Modeling the determinants of renewable energy consumption in Nigeria: Evidence from Autoregressive Distributed Lagged in error correction approach," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 606-616.
    25. Baye, Richmond Silvanus & Ahenkan, Albert & Darkwah, Samuel, 2021. "Renewable energy output in sub Saharan Africa," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 705-714.
    26. Lin, Boqiang & Ma, Ruiyang, 2022. "Green technology innovations, urban innovation environment and CO2 emission reduction in China: Fresh evidence from a partially linear functional-coefficient panel model," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    27. Gyimah, Justice & Yao, Xilong & Tachega, Mark Awe & Sam Hayford, Isaac & Opoku-Mensah, Evans, 2022. "Renewable energy consumption and economic growth: New evidence from Ghana," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 248(C).
    28. Xiong, Linyun & Li, Penghan & Wang, Ziqiang & Wang, Jie, 2020. "Multi-agent based multi objective renewable energy management for diversified community power consumers," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).
    29. Kwon, Soongeol, 2020. "Ensuring renewable energy utilization with quality of service guarantee for energy-efficient data center operations," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 276(C).
    30. Irene Arcelay & Aitor Goti & Aitor Oyarbide-Zubillaga & Tugce Akyazi & Elisabete Alberdi & Pablo Garcia-Bringas, 2021. "Definition of the Future Skills Needs of Job Profiles in the Renewable Energy Sector," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-23, May.
    31. Solangi, Yasir Ahmed & Longsheng, Cheng & Shah, Syed Ahsan Ali, 2021. "Assessing and overcoming the renewable energy barriers for sustainable development in Pakistan: An integrated AHP and fuzzy TOPSIS approach," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 209-222.
    32. Jingwen Huo & Peipei Chen & Klaus Hubacek & Heran Zheng & Jing Meng & Dabo Guan, 2022. "Full‐scale, near real‐time multi‐regional input–output table for the global emerging economies (EMERGING)," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 26(4), pages 1218-1232, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Clement Olalekan Olaniyi & Mamdouh Abdulaziz Saleh Al‐Faryan & Eyitayo Oyewunmi Ogbaro, 2025. "Do institutional quality and its threshold matter in the sensitivity of the renewable energy transition to financial development? New empirical perspectives," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(1), pages 5-43, January.
    2. Wang, Huiping & Liu, Peiling, 2023. "Spatial correlation network of renewable energy consumption and its influencing factors: Evidence from 31 Chinese provinces," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    3. Lee, Chien-Chiang & Chen, Mei-Ping & Yuan, Zihao, 2023. "Is information and communication technology a driver for renewable energy?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    4. Dogan, Eyup & Chishti, Muhammad Zubair & Karimi Alavijeh, Nooshin & Tzeremes, Panayiotis, 2022. "The roles of technology and Kyoto Protocol in energy transition towards COP26 targets: Evidence from the novel GMM-PVAR approach for G-7 countries," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    5. Jinjin Zhang & Zixuan Li & Arshad Ali & Jinshu Wang, 2023. "Does globalization matter in the relationship between renewable energy consumption and economic growth, evidence from Asian emerging economies," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(8), pages 1-25, August.
    6. Giri, Puspendu & Paul, Somnath & Debnath, Bijoy Krishna, 2024. "A fuzzy Graph Theory and Matrix Approach (fuzzy GTMA) to select the best renewable energy alternative in India," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 358(C).
    7. Sun, Chuanwang & Khan, Anwar & Xue, Juntao & Huang, Xiaoyong, 2024. "Are digital economy and financial structure driving renewable energy technology innovations: A major eight countries perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 362(C).
    8. Yi, Jiahui & Dai, Sheng & Li, Lin & Cheng, Jinhua, 2024. "How does digital economy development affect renewable energy innovation?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    9. Sharma, Gagan Deep & Tiwari, Aviral Kumar & Erkut, Burak & Mundi, Hardeep Singh, 2021. "Exploring the nexus between non-renewable and renewable energy consumptions and economic development: Evidence from panel estimations," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    10. Mara Madaleno & Manuel Carlos Nogueira, 2023. "How Renewable Energy and CO 2 Emissions Contribute to Economic Growth, and Sustainability—An Extensive Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-15, February.
    11. Degirmenci, Tunahan & Yavuz, Hakan, 2024. "Environmental taxes, R&D expenditures and renewable energy consumption in EU countries: Are fiscal instruments effective in the expansion of clean energy?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 299(C).
    12. Feng Dong & Yuling Pan, 2020. "Evolution of Renewable Energy in BRI Countries: A Combined Econometric and Decomposition Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(22), pages 1-18, November.
    13. Shang, Hua & Jiang, Li & Pan, Xianyou & Pan, Xiongfeng, 2022. "Green technology innovation spillover effect and urban eco-efficiency convergence: Evidence from Chinese cities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    14. Lee, Chien-Chiang & Qin, Shuai & Li, Yaya, 2022. "Does industrial robot application promote green technology innovation in the manufacturing industry?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    15. Onuoha, Favour Chidinma & Dimnwobi, Stephen Kelechi & Okere, Kingsley Ikechukwu & Ekesiobi, Chukwunonso, 2023. "Funding the green transition: Governance quality, public debt, and renewable energy consumption in Sub-Saharan Africa," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    16. Appiah-Otoo, Isaac & Chen, Xudong & Ampah, Jeffrey Dankwa, 2023. "Does financial structure affect renewable energy consumption? Evidence from G20 countries," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 272(C).
    17. Zhao, Ruizeng & Sun, Jiasen & Wang, Xinyue, 2024. "Synergistic impact of digital finance and urban agglomeration policy on carbon emission reduction," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 96(PB).
    18. Xiaoyu He & Bo Li, 2023. "A Study on the Influence of Green Industrial Policy on Urban Green Development: Based on the Empirical Data of Ecological Industrial Park Pilot Construction," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-29, June.
    19. Wang, Sanchuan & Shu, Wanwu & Cui, Lianbiao, 2024. "Green finance policy and green economic transformation," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PB).
    20. Lee, Chien-Chiang & Wang, Fuhao & Chang, Yu-Fang, 2023. "Does green finance promote renewable energy? Evidence from China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:337:y:2023:i:c:s0306261923002556. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.