The impact of clean energy consumption on economic growth in China: Is environmental regulation a curse or a blessing?

Applying balanced panel data comprised of 27 provinces spanning the period from 2000 to 2015, this research estimates a production function accounting for heterogeneity by using the finite mixture model to provide, for the first time, a comprehensive assessment of the interrelationships among environmental regulation, clean energy consumption, and economic growth. It is noteworthy here that we calculate clean energy consumption at the level of China's provinces to avoid measurement error. The main findings can be summarized as follows. First, environmental regulation matters for the nexus between clean energy consumption and economic growth. Specifically, regulation enhances the positive effect of clean energy consumption on economic growth, thus prompting provinces to transform onto a clean growth path. Second, there exists heterogenous nexuses between clean energy consumption and economic growth in different growth paths, as clean energy consumption not only facilitates growth in paths B and C, but also restrains growth in path A. Third, ignoring measurement error of clean energy consumption and adopting a misspecification of the production function will bias estimation results when analyzing the impact of clean energy consumption on economic growth. In comparison to applying clean energy consumption data and the Solow decomposition framework accounting for heterogeneity, employing clean energy production data and using the traditional Solow decomposition framework will both underestimate the significance of clean energy consumption's impact on economic growth. 

Carbon emissions trading scheme, energy efficiency and rebound effect – Evidence from China's provincial data

Influencing factors of farmers' cognition on agricultural mulch film pollution in rural China

The penetration of renewable energies is increasing in power systems all over the world. The volatility and intermittency of renewable energies pose real challenges to energy systems. To overcome the problem, demand-side flexibility is a practical solution in all demand sectors, including residential, commercial, agricultural, and industrial sectors. This paper provides a comprehensive review of industrial demand response opportunities in energy-intensive industries. Flexibility potentials are discussed from (1) viewpoints of power flexibility for cement manufacturing and aluminum smelting plants (2) viewpoints of joint power-heat flexibility for oil refinery industries. The flexibility potentials of industrial processes are classified based on their compatibility with time responses on long, mid, and short advance notices of different electricity market floors and ancillary service markets. Challenges and opportunities of industrial demand management are classified from viewpoints of power systems and industry owners. Software tools and solution methodologies of industrial energy models are surveyed for energy researchers. The studies show that cement manufacturing plants have great potentials in providing peak-shaving and valley-filling in crushers and cement mills with up to 10% and 16.9% reduction in energy consumption cost and power consumption, respectively. The aluminum smelting plants can provide up to 34.2% and 20.70% reduction in energy consumption cost and power consumption by turning down/off the variable voltage smelting pots. 

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2021.111963

Feng Li

Papers

Environmental regulation, capital output and energy efficiency in China: An empirical research based on integrated energy prices