The Convergence of Energy Use from Renewable Sources in the European Countries: Spatio-Temporal Approach

Abstract

This article presents the analysis of the convergence of energy use from renewable sources among chosen European countries using a spatio-temporal approach. The high energy dependence of European countries on the economies of other continents makes the development of the use of renewable sources for energy production an important factor of their economic and social progress. The economic growth of every country is determined, among other factors, by an increase in the energy inputs. Therefore, in order to avoid excessive degradation of the environment, the use of renewable energy sources is increasingly becoming the crucial goal of governments worldwide. The analysis was conducted using data for 32 selected European countries in the years 1995–2019. In order to check progress in the case of the homogenization of renewable energy use, the β-convergence models for pooled cross-sectional and time-series data (TSCS) and also spatio-temporal β-convergence models were estimated. Absolute and conditional convergence was considered. Based on the literature review, the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita level and CO2 emissions per capita level as processes conditioning the convergence in the case of the renewable energy use were chosen. Moreover, the spatial dependencies between neighboring countries were included in the models, and the neighborhood was defined in two ways. The neighborhood was quantified using the connection matrices: (1) based on the common border criterion (geographical neighborhood) and (2) based on the well-being level similarity (economic neighborhood based on the HPI index values).