Renewable Energy and Economic Growth: Evidence from India

Abstract

This article examines the nexus between economic growth and two renewable energy sources, namely wind and solar, to separate out the contrast between these two sources, for India deploying system generalised method of moments and vector error correction method suitable to capture the dynamic nature of panel data. Unlike most of the earlier studies, it takes into account cross-sectional dependence and addresses the issue of endogeneity. India has been chosen because despite India being one of the largest producers of renewable energy globally; the nexus is under-studied. This article finds the installation of solar energy capacity positively influences the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) growth. Moreover, there is a bi-directional positive relation between the installation of wind energy capacity and GSDP growth. Hence the adoption of renewable energy is helping the states to grow faster. However, the study found not much difference in the nature of the nexus between solar energy growth and wind energy growth for India. JEL Codes: O13, P28, P44, Q56