IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v288y2024ics0360544223030669.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

China's provincial-level sustainable energy transition requires accelerating renewable energy technological innovation

Author

Listed:
  • Yang, Guanglei
  • Zhang, Guoxing
  • Cao, Dongqin
  • Zha, Donglan
  • Gao, Xiulin
  • Su, Bin

Abstract

In energy economics, little attention has been paid to the impact of renewable energy technological innovation (RETI) on sustainable energy transition in a large energy-producing and consuming country such as China. Using the Chinese provincial panel dataset from 2000 to 2018, we examine the impact of RETI on sustainable energy transition. We find that RETI positively drives sustainable energy transition in Chinese provinces, but the driving effect gradually diminishes with the increase in per capita income. In the energy-poor regions, RETI has a significant driving impact on sustainable energy transition, but not in the energy-rich regions; moreover, this driving effect in the western region is significantly more potent than that in the eastern region. The mechanism identification results reveal that RETI significantly improves energy system performance and energy structure optimization. In contrast, RETI has a more significant effect on the former. In this study, we provide a novel perspective to identify the driving path of sustainable energy transition in Chinese provinces.

Suggested Citation

  • Yang, Guanglei & Zhang, Guoxing & Cao, Dongqin & Zha, Donglan & Gao, Xiulin & Su, Bin, 2024. "China's provincial-level sustainable energy transition requires accelerating renewable energy technological innovation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 288(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:288:y:2024:i:c:s0360544223030669
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2023.129672
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544223030669
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2023.129672?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lin, Boqiang & Omoju, Oluwasola E., 2017. "Focusing on the right targets: Economic factors driving non-hydro renewable energy transition," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 52-63.
    2. Salim, Ruhul & Yao, Yao & Chen, George & Zhang, Lin, 2017. "Can foreign direct investment harness energy consumption in China? A time series investigation," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 43-53.
    3. Zhang, Zixuan & Chen, Huaichao, 2022. "Dynamic interaction of renewable energy technological innovation, environmental regulation intensity and carbon pressure: Evidence from China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 192(C), pages 420-430.
    4. Hansen, Bruce E., 1999. "Threshold effects in non-dynamic panels: Estimation, testing, and inference," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 345-368, December.
    5. Dioha, Michael O. & Kumar, Atul, 2020. "Exploring sustainable energy transitions in sub-Saharan Africa residential sector: The case of Nigeria," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    6. David Roodman, 2009. "How to do xtabond2: An introduction to difference and system GMM in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 9(1), pages 86-136, March.
    7. Awijen, Haithem & Belaïd, Fateh & Zaied, Younes Ben & Hussain, Nazim & Lahouel, Béchir Ben, 2022. "Renewable energy deployment in the MENA region: Does innovation matter?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    8. Florian Noseleit, 2018. "Renewable energy innovations and sustainability transition: How relevant are spatial spillovers?," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(1), pages 259-275, January.
    9. Nick Johnstone & Ivan Haščič & David Popp, 2010. "Renewable Energy Policies and Technological Innovation: Evidence Based on Patent Counts," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 45(1), pages 133-155, January.
    10. Wang, Qiang & Zhang, Fuyu, 2021. "Free trade and renewable energy: A cross-income levels empirical investigation using two trade openness measures," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 1027-1039.
    11. Gene M. Grossman & Alan B. Krueger, 1995. "Economic Growth and the Environment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(2), pages 353-377.
    12. Su, Yi & Fan, Qi-ming, 2022. "Renewable energy technology innovation, industrial structure upgrading and green development from the perspective of China's provinces," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    13. Dong, Kangyin & Jiang, Qingzhe & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Zhao, Jun, 2021. "Does low-carbon energy transition mitigate energy poverty? The case of natural gas for China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    14. Zheng, Shuhong & Yang, Juan & Yu, Shiwei, 2021. "How renewable energy technological innovation promotes renewable power generation: Evidence from China's provincial panel data," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 1394-1407.
    15. Huang, Lingyun & Zou, Yanjun, 2020. "How to promote energy transition in China: From the perspectives of interregional relocation and environmental regulation," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    16. Vural, Gulfer, 2021. "Analyzing the impacts of economic growth, pollution, technological innovation and trade on renewable energy production in selected Latin American countries," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 210-216.
    17. Cao, Dongqin & Peng, Can & Yang, Guanglei & Zhang, Wei, 2022. "How does the pressure of political promotion affect renewable energy technological innovation? Evidence from 30 Chinese provinces," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(PA).
    18. Khan, Khalid & Su, Chi Wei & Rehman, Ashfaq U. & Ullah, Rahman, 2022. "Is technological innovation a driver of renewable energy?," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    19. Yin, Yuwei & Lam, Jasmine Siu Lee, 2022. "Bottlenecks of LNG supply chain in energy transition: A case study of China using system dynamics simulation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 250(C).
    20. Chen, Wei & Zou, Wandan & Zhong, Kaiyang & Aliyeva, Alina, 2023. "Machine learning assessment under the development of green technology innovation: A perspective of energy transition," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 65-73.
    21. Xu, Le & Fan, Meiting & Yang, Lili & Shao, Shuai, 2021. "Heterogeneous green innovations and carbon emission performance: Evidence at China's city level," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    22. Narula, Kapil & Reddy, B. Sudhakara, 2015. "Three blind men and an elephant: The case of energy indices to measure energy security and energy sustainability," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 148-158.
    23. Yan, Zheming & Zou, Baoling & Du, Kerui & Li, Ke, 2020. "Do renewable energy technology innovations promote China's green productivity growth? Fresh evidence from partially linear functional-coefficient models," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    24. Neofytou, H. & Nikas, A. & Doukas, H., 2020. "Sustainable energy transition readiness: A multicriteria assessment index," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    25. Cheng, Yuanyuan & Yao, Xin, 2021. "Carbon intensity reduction assessment of renewable energy technology innovation in China: A panel data model with cross-section dependence and slope heterogeneity," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    26. Wang, Wei & Xiao, Weiwei & Bai, Caiquan, 2022. "Can renewable energy technology innovation alleviate energy poverty? Perspective from the marketization level," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    27. Doytch, Nadia & Narayan, Seema, 2016. "Does FDI influence renewable energy consumption? An analysis of sectoral FDI impact on renewable and non-renewable industrial energy consumption," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 291-301.
    28. Bompard, E. & Botterud, A. & Corgnati, S. & Huang, T. & Jafari, M. & Leone, P. & Mauro, S. & Montesano, G. & Papa, C. & Profumo, F., 2020. "An electricity triangle for energy transition: Application to Italy," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    29. Xu, Bin & Lin, Boqiang, 2018. "Assessing the development of China's new energy industry," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 116-131.
    30. Guo, Pibin & Wang, Ting & Li, Dan & Zhou, Xijun, 2016. "How energy technology innovation affects transition of coal resource-based economy in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 1-6.
    31. Cao, Dongqin & Peng, Can & Yang, Guanglei, 2022. "The pressure of political promotion and renewable energy technological innovation: A spatial econometric analysis from China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    32. Edwin Garces & Tugrul Daim, 2012. "Impact of Renewable Energy Technology on the Economic Growth of the USA," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 3(3), pages 233-249, September.
    33. Yan, Zheming & Du, Keru & Yang, Zhiming & Deng, Min, 2017. "Convergence or divergence? Understanding the global development trend of low-carbon technologies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 499-509.
    34. Chapman, Andrew & Okushima, Shinichiro, 2019. "Engendering an inclusive low-carbon energy transition in Japan: Considering the perspectives and awareness of the energy poor," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wang, Zongrun & Cao, Xuxin & Ren, Xiaohang & Gozgor, Giray, 2024. "Digital finance and the energy transition: Evidence from Chinese prefecture-level cities," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    2. Yang, Chengying & Li, Mingming & Zhou, Dianyi, 2024. "Energy assessment in rural regions of China with various scenarios: Historical–to–futuristic," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 302(C).
    3. Hou, Yaru & Yang, Mian & Ma, Yanran & Zhang, Haiying, 2024. "Study on city's energy transition: Evidence from the establishment of the new energy demonstration cities in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    4. Wan, Jiaxin & Ma, Wanrong & Mao, Chunxiao, 2024. "Navigating economic and legal compliance in digital resource management: Technological Pathways to sustainability with digital government," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    5. Zhou, Dequn & Chen, Ting & Ding, Hao & Wang, Qunwei, 2024. "Tracking the provincial energy transition in China: A comprehensive index," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 304(C).
    6. He, Ruofan & Wan, Panbing & Yang, Mian, 2024. "The resource curse in energy-rich regions: Evidence from China's ultra-high voltage transmission," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 304(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dong, Kangyin & Yang, Senmiao & Wang, Jianda & Dong, Xiucheng, 2023. "Revisiting energy justice: Is renewable energy technology innovation a tool for realizing a just energy system?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    2. Lee, Chien-Chiang & He, Zhi-Wen & Xiao, Fu, 2022. "How does information and communication technology affect renewable energy technology innovation? International evidence," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 546-557.
    3. Xiaohong Liu & Meiwen Zhang, 2022. "The Impact of Market Integration on Renewable Energy Technology Innovation: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-14, October.
    4. Chu, Lan Khanh & Ghosh, Sudeshna & Doğan, Buhari & Nguyen, Nam Hoai & Shahbaz, Muhammad, 2023. "Energy security as new determinant of renewable energy: The role of economic complexity in top energy users," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PC).
    5. Nepal, Rabindra & Liu, Yang & Wang, Jianda & Dong, Kangyin, 2024. "How does green finance promote renewable energy technology innovation? A quasi-natural experiment perspective," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    6. Lee, Chien-Chiang & Yuan, Zihao & Lee, Chi-Chuan & Chang, Yu-Fang, 2022. "The impact of renewable energy technology innovation on energy poverty: Does climate risk matter?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    7. Tao, Weiliang & Weng, Shimei & Chen, Xueli & ALHussan, Fawaz Baddar & Song, Malin, 2024. "Artificial intelligence-driven transformations in low-carbon energy structure: Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    8. Zhang, Zhanren & Karimi, Mohammad Sharif & Weerasinghe, Naveen Mahasen & Bilan, Yuriy & Shahzad, U., 2024. "Interplay between economic progress, carbon emissions and energy prices on green energy adoption: Evidence from USA and Germany in context of sustainability," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    9. Shiyue Su & Md. Qamruzzaman & Salma Karim, 2023. "Charting a Sustainable Future: The Impact of Economic Policy, Environmental Taxation, Innovation, and Natural Resources on Clean Energy Consumption," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-34, September.
    10. Feng, Chen-Yu & Yang, Xiaodong & Afshan, Sahar & Irfan, Muhamamd, 2023. "Can renewable energy technology innovation promote mineral resources’ green utilization efficiency? Novel insights from regional development inequality," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    11. Cao, Dongqin & Peng, Can & Yang, Guanglei & Zhang, Wei, 2022. "How does the pressure of political promotion affect renewable energy technological innovation? Evidence from 30 Chinese provinces," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(PA).
    12. Lee, Chien-Chiang & Ho, Shan-Ju, 2022. "Impacts of export diversification on energy intensity, renewable energy, and waste energy in 121 countries: Do environmental regulations matter?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 199(C), pages 1510-1522.
    13. Zhu, Xuehong & Ding, Qian & Chen, Jinyu, 2022. "How does critical mineral trade pattern affect renewable energy development? The mediating role of renewable energy technological progress," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    14. Ding, Qian & Huang, Jianbai & Chen, Jinyu & Tao, Dali, 2023. "Internet development and renewable energy technological innovation: Does institutional quality matter?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    15. Wang, Jianda & Dong, Kangyin & Taghizadeh-Hesary, Farhad & Dong, Xiucheng, 2023. "Does industrial convergence mitigate CO2 emissions in China? A quasi-natural experiment on “Triple Play” Reform," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    16. Limei Ma & Qianying Wang & Dan Shi & Qinglong Shao, 2023. "Spatiotemporal patterns and determinants of renewable energy innovation: Evidence from a province-level analysis in China," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-14, December.
    17. Chen, Chaoyi & Pinar, Mehmet & Stengos, Thanasis, 2021. "Determinants of renewable energy consumption: Importance of democratic institutions," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 75-83.
    18. Lin, Boqiang & Chen, Yufang, 2019. "Does electricity price matter for innovation in renewable energy technologies in China?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 259-266.
    19. Yusen Luo & Qinglin Wang & Xingle Long & Zheming Yan & Muhammad Salman & Chao Wu, 2023. "Green innovation and SO2 emissions: Dynamic threshold effect of human capital," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 499-515, January.
    20. Liang, Ting & Zhang, Yue-Jun & Qiang, Wei, 2022. "Does technological innovation benefit energy firms’ environmental performance? The moderating effect of government subsidies and media coverage," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:288:y:2024:i:c:s0360544223030669. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.