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COVID‐19: A Cloud with a Silver Lining for Renewable Energy?

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  • Madhu Khanna

Abstract

COVID‐19 has led to an unprecedented reduction in demand for energy for transportation and electricity, a crash in prices and employment in the fossil fuel industries and record‐breaking reductions in global carbon emissions. This paper discusses whether this “demand destruction” could spell the beginning of the end for fossil fuels or a temporary recession and the imperative to recover from the current crisis by “building back better” and not the same as before. There are encouraging signs for the renewable energy industry that could make COVID‐19 a cloud with a silver lining; whether this is the case will depend not only on the technological realities and social response to the crisis but also on political will and foresight.

Suggested Citation

  • Madhu Khanna, 2021. "COVID‐19: A Cloud with a Silver Lining for Renewable Energy?," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(1), pages 73-85, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:apecpp:v:43:y:2021:i:1:p:73-85
    DOI: 10.1002/aepp.13102
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    3. Shah, Muhammad Ibrahim & Foglia, Matteo & Shahzad, Umer & Fareed, Zeeshan, 2022. "Green innovation, resource price and carbon emissions during the COVID-19 times: New findings from wavelet local multiple correlation analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
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    5. Tong, Yuan & Wan, Ning & Dai, Xingyu & Bi, Xiaoyi & Wang, Qunwei, 2022. "China's energy stock market jumps: To what extent does the COVID-19 pandemic play a part?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    6. Gao, Yixuan & Malone, Trey & Schaefer, K. Aleks & Myers, Robert J., 2023. "Disentangling Short-Run COVID-19 Price Impact Pathways in the US Corn Market," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 48(2), May.
    7. Diana-Mihaela Jula, 2022. "Renewable Energy during the Pandemic Crisis," Global Economic Observer, "Nicolae Titulescu" University of Bucharest, Faculty of Economic Sciences;Institute for World Economy of the Romanian Academy, vol. 10(1), pages 34-48, June.
    8. Ernest F. Morgan & Omar Abdel-Rahim & Tamer F. Megahed & Junya Suehiro & Sobhy M. Abdelkader, 2022. "Fault Ride-Through Techniques for Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator Wind Turbines (PMSG-WTGs): A Systematic Literature Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-26, December.
    9. Yudhvir Seetharam & Kingstone Nyakurukwa, 2026. "The Impact of Twitter Economic Policy Uncertainty on Clean Energy Stocks," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 67(5), pages 3431-3448, May.
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    11. Zhang, Wen & Wu, Zhibin & Zeng, Xiaojun & Zhu, Changhui, 2023. "An ensemble dynamic self-learning model for multiscale carbon price forecasting," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PC).

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