Determinants of Geothermal Power Sustainability Development: Do Global Competitiveness Markets Matter?

Abstract

As a substantially capital-intensive venture, the distribution network of the geothermal business is disproportionately clustered around the project designing phase. The profound geothermal industry is broad, and consequently the geothermal economy differs substantially from one place to another. The primary goal of this study is to analyze the effect of factors relating to global competitiveness along with economic growth on the sustainability of geothermal energy among European 27 countries. Employing auto regressive distributing lag (ARDL), the major findings suggest that a significant rise in the geothermal power production sustainable development can occur in the 14 European Union emerged economies applying global competitiveness criteria than in EU13 developing economies. Among additional criteria, a conducive environment, intellectual capital, market shares, as well as an innovation ecosystem contributes more significantly to the sustainability of geothermal energy among the 14 classed as established in this research than the 13 emerging economies. The results suggest that geothermal power sustainability among the European countries regions could attain a sustainable increased level of geothermal energy generation by putting in place the necessary global competitiveness determinants for the EU 2030 Energy Union goals to be achieved. The attainment of these Energy Union goals will assist in combating climate change and fighting environmental pollution. Three estimators were adopted to confirm that all calculated projections made in the study are said to be valid. The global competitiveness measures should be made better effective by the EU nations and this will help in achieving a pollution-free society and environment. Authorities in charge of policy and law-making in the EU regions should participate more in global competitiveness for geothermal energy production to become sustainable. Cointegrated strategies that will promote sustainability should be stressed by policymakers in the EU. This will go a long way in reducing the level of carbon dioxide emissions and also in promoting sustainability in the area of geothermal power generation.