Energy PolicyPub Date : 2025-07-25DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114791
Gina Ioan , Carmelia Mariana Dragomir Bălănică , Sirbu Gabriela Carmen , Ionel Sergiu Pirju , Camelia Mădălina Beldiman
{"title":"The green Dilemma: Energy efficiency, renewables and economic challenges in Eastern Europe","authors":"Gina Ioan , Carmelia Mariana Dragomir Bălănică , Sirbu Gabriela Carmen , Ionel Sergiu Pirju , Camelia Mădălina Beldiman","doi":"10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114791","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114791","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study analyzes the factors influencing energy efficiency (EE) in four Eastern European countries: Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, and Hungary, highlighting <strong>the green dilemma,</strong> a challenge of balancing energy efficiency improvements with economic development. Using a panel data regression approach, the research explores the impact of variables such as energy consumption, the share of renewable energy, and investments in energy efficiency on EE. Four econometric models were employed, with the Two-Stage Least Squares (TSLS) approach ultimately selected as the most appropriate, following Hausman and Sargan tests that confirmed the reliability and validity of the instrumental variables used. The results highlight significant relationships between investments in renewable energy and EE, especially in the context of the ongoing adaptation of these countries to market-based economies and integration into the European Union. The study provides insights into how targeted investments, the adoption of technologies, and policy reforms can improve EE, thus contributing to the sustainable objectives of the green economy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11672,"journal":{"name":"Energy Policy","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 114791"},"PeriodicalIF":9.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144702339","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Energy PolicyPub Date : 2025-07-25DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114720
Matteo Zuch
{"title":"Rural electrification in sub-Saharan Africa: A willingness to pay analysis of electricity access in Kenya","authors":"Matteo Zuch","doi":"10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114720","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114720","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Despite the significant progress in Kenya's rural electrification rates over the last few years, a large share of the country's rural population remains without electricity. While existing research focuses on developing rural electrification strategies, scientific research on households' demand for electricity access methods appears to be limited. This study investigates households' economic valuation of electricity access in rural regions in Kenya. The contingent valuation method is employed to obtain national households' willingness to pay (WTP) for two electricity access methods: grid connection and off-grid solar-home-system installation. The estimated mean WTP for grid connection (∼$78) is almost twice as high as for an off-grid solar-based solution (∼$43). However, the financial viability of obtaining an on-grid connection appears to be limited, especially among low-income groups. The ownership of property and solar lighting devices, self-employment, household expenditures, and preferences for using mobile money services significantly influence households' WTP for domestic electricity access. These findings can assist policymakers in developing and implementing efficient strategies to promote rural electrification in sub-Saharan Africa. Such measures might focus on subsidizing initial investment costs for electrification technologies, promoting access to financial institutions, implementing efficient payment mechanisms, and informing households about decentralized solar-based systems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11672,"journal":{"name":"Energy Policy","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 114720"},"PeriodicalIF":9.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144702338","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Energy PolicyPub Date : 2025-07-25DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114793
Boqiang Lin , Yida Liu
{"title":"Navigating trade barriers: How anti-dumping and countervailing policies affect outward foreign direct investment of Chinese solar photovoltaic firms","authors":"Boqiang Lin , Yida Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114793","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114793","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In the context of rising global trade protectionism, Chinese photovoltaic (PV) firms face increasing anti-dumping and countervailing (ADCV) trade barriers. Outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) has become a crucial strategy to overcome these barriers and expand into overseas markets. Using data from Chinese listed firms between 2007 and 2016, this study empirically examines the impact of ADCV policies on PV firms’ OFDI using a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) approach. The findings show that (1) ADCV measures significantly stimulate OFDI, confirming the “crossing trade barriers effect”; (2) Mechanism analysis identifies three pathways: export barriers push PV firms to use OFDI to bypass trade restrictions; ADCV policies increase market concentration, with stronger firms leveraging OFDI to mitigate negative effects, while weaker firms reduce market share or exit; and PV firms use greenfield investments and cross-border M&A to overcome trade barriers, with M&A being a more efficient strategy; (3) Heterogeneity analysis reveals that firms with higher productivity, those more dependent on external markets, eastern enterprises, and firms located in Belt and Road provinces are more likely to enhance global competitiveness via OFDI. This study offers insights into how Chinese PV firms can navigate trade barriers and provides policy recommendations to optimize internationalization strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11672,"journal":{"name":"Energy Policy","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 114793"},"PeriodicalIF":9.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144702341","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Energy PolicyPub Date : 2025-07-25DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114775
David C. Broadstock , Roger Fouquet , Jeong Won Kim
{"title":"Carbon pricing and stock performance: Are carbon prices already more influential than energy prices?","authors":"David C. Broadstock , Roger Fouquet , Jeong Won Kim","doi":"10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114775","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114775","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper assesses the relationship between carbon prices and the financial value of United Kingdom companies. It shows that the financial market co-moves with the UK-ETS at least as much as it does with other major energy commodities (i.e., oil, gas and electricity prices), and carbon prices are becoming the single most important energy or environmental variable to consider in determining corporate value. The results indicate that 14.1 % of total market capitalisation is exposed to carbon pricing ‘risk’, 20 % or more of the time. The Energy sector has the largest exposure with £251bn (41.51 % of this sector) exposed at least 20 % of the time. This is equivalent to one-twelfth of the economy’s GDP. Within the Energy sector, 13.5 % of all observations indicate net-positive relationship between carbon pricing and stock returns - these are likely to be associated with low carbon energy sources and technologies. The Financial sector is the second most affected sector with £117bn exposed to carbon pricing at least 20 % of the time. Finally, it is shown that information on ‘carbon sensitivity’ can be utilised to construct investment portfolios wherein carbon sensitive stocks under-perform against the market, while carbon insensitive (‘immune’) stocks closely track market benchmarks, depending on investment weighting strategy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11672,"journal":{"name":"Energy Policy","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 114775"},"PeriodicalIF":9.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144702326","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Energy PolicyPub Date : 2025-07-25DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114789
Y.S. Cheng , K.P. Tsang , C.K. Woo
{"title":"Protectionism's adverse impact on renewable energy deployment: evidence from the European Union's import duties on China-made photovoltaic panels","authors":"Y.S. Cheng , K.P. Tsang , C.K. Woo","doi":"10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114789","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114789","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Responding to the Paris Agreement on deep decarbonization, many countries have adopted industrial policies to promote their domestic manufacture of renewable energy equipment. If accompanied by protectionism, such policies impede renewable energy deployment that reduces the world's CO<sub>2</sub> emissions caused by production and consumption of fossil fuels. Using the quasi-natural experiment data for 36 OECD countries in 2011–2018, this paper econometrically documents the adverse impact of protectionism on renewable energy deployment based on the European Union's (EU's) anti-dumping and anti-subsidy import duties that took effect in December 2013 on China-made photovoltaic panels (CPP). Its key finding is that these duties had reduced the annual growth in the EU's solar energy share of total electricity generation. This statistically significant (<em>p</em>-value ≤0.05) finding's policy implication is that had the EU not imposed these duties, its solar energy share growth could have been ∼0.7 % per year instead of the observed ∼0.2 % per year in the 2014–2018 period. The estimated difference of ∼0.5 % suggests an increase of ∼0.75 % in the EU electricity industry's CO<sub>2</sub> emissions. Thankfully, the EU's import duties on CPP expired at the end of 2018, thus eliminating one of the adverse effects of protectionism on the world's quest for a clean and sustainable electricity future.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11672,"journal":{"name":"Energy Policy","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 114789"},"PeriodicalIF":9.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144702340","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Energy PolicyPub Date : 2025-07-24DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114780
Daniel Møller Sneum , Anna Billerbeck , Febin Kachirayil , Russell McKenna
{"title":"Barriers to district heating deployment: insights from literature and experts","authors":"Daniel Møller Sneum , Anna Billerbeck , Febin Kachirayil , Russell McKenna","doi":"10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114780","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114780","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Over the last century, district heating (DH) has only achieved global market shares of around 10 %. To reach its potential market shares of 25–50 % in Europe by 2050, growth must drastically accelerate. But deployment of DH is hindered by barriers, potentially slowing this fast-paced transition of the heat system. In this paper, we identify barriers to the deployment of DH through manual and GPT-aided literature reviews. These reviews are complemented by a survey of 94 DH experts from Europe and North America, regions which account for approximately 20 % of global- and 93 % of European DH supply. We find that economic and political barriers are considered both most significant and most difficult to overcome. The importance of individual barriers varies between countries based on the existing shares of DH and renewable heat in DH supply respectively. The most important individual barriers include high installation costs, regulatory uncertainty and insufficient policies to integrate DH with other energy sectors. If a faster pace of system-integrated DH deployment is desired, it is critical to reduce the underlying investment risk of district heating projects through an expansion of integrated energy system planning, and regulations such as zoning and mandates.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11672,"journal":{"name":"Energy Policy","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 114780"},"PeriodicalIF":9.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144696434","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Energy PolicyPub Date : 2025-07-24DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114787
Theodoros Arvanitopoulos , Charlie Wilson , Craig Morton
{"title":"Decarbonising residential heating: local conditions and spatial spillovers driving heat pump uptake","authors":"Theodoros Arvanitopoulos , Charlie Wilson , Craig Morton","doi":"10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114787","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114787","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Air source heat pumps are the principal means of decarbonising residential heating. What drives local uptake of heat pumps? We present and examine a unique, highly disaggregated, spatial-temporal dataset for heat pump diffusion across Great Britain at the local authority level from 2010 to 2020. We find average total installed cost of 1075 £/kW and a negative learning rate of −3.3 %, with most installations in owner-occupied houses. Using spatial econometric models, we investigate how local conditions drive heat pump installations. We find early adopting local areas tend to be rural, off the gas grid, with prior use of solid fuel or oil for heating, and participate in renewable and community energy projects. Early adopting areas benefit from a combination of more readily accessible properties, low-carbon energy skills, and local supply chains. We find robust evidence of spatial spillover effects that show early adopting areas serve as deployment test beds, indirectly stimulating deployment in contiguous areas. We reason that spatial spillovers are driven by installer availability and local supply chains materialised around installation activity. We estimate for every three heat pumps installed, one heat pump is subsequently installed in a neighbouring local authority with less advantageous conditions. This implies an important policy trade-off for low-carbon heat between maximising effectiveness (incentivise early adopters) and widening equality of access (support later adopters). Concerted policy action to tackle fragmented supply chains and skills shortages which inflate installation costs of heat pumps relative to gas boilers is also urgently needed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11672,"journal":{"name":"Energy Policy","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 114787"},"PeriodicalIF":9.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144696433","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Energy PolicyPub Date : 2025-07-23DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114779
Yinyin Zhao , Benhong Peng
{"title":"Exploring modes of third-party market cooperation in energy projects: A strategic approach to addressing climate change","authors":"Yinyin Zhao , Benhong Peng","doi":"10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114779","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114779","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Choosing the right third-party market cooperation mode to achieve carbon neutrality is essential for ensuring sustainable energy development. Based on differential game theory, this study constructs a dynamic emission reduction decision model involving Chinese-funded enterprises, foreign-funded enterprises, and host-country enterprises. It compares and analyzes the emission reduction trajectories of each participant under the benchmark mode, vertical incentive mode, horizontal alliance mode, and integrated mode. The results indicate that the optimal trajectory of carbon emission reduction for energy projects dynamically increases over time before stabilizing under different scenarios. The carbon emission reduction volume achieved under the integrated mode is superior to that under the horizontal alliance mode. Only when the host country's cost preferential ratio exceeds the maximum threshold can the emission reduction volume under the vertical incentive mode surpass that of the integrated mode. The vertical incentive mode can achieve Pareto improvement to a certain extent, but only the integrated mode can simultaneously maximize the emission reduction effort, the project's reduction volume, and the project's overall profit, achieving a perfect Pareto optimal solution. This study provides a decision-making basis for improving third-party market cooperation modes in energy projects and promoting energy emission reduction.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11672,"journal":{"name":"Energy Policy","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 114779"},"PeriodicalIF":9.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144685867","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Energy PolicyPub Date : 2025-07-23DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114792
Lynette A.M.H. Germes , Carina J. Wiekens , Henny J. van der Windt
{"title":"Role of social networks in upscaling energy communities: Experiences from the Netherlands","authors":"Lynette A.M.H. Germes , Carina J. Wiekens , Henny J. van der Windt","doi":"10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114792","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114792","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The importance of energy communities (ECs) has been increasingly acknowledged in recent years. However, ECs exert limited impact and confront several barriers. Social networks share resources and knowledge and are thus expected to support the development and upscaling of ECs by enabling more extensive collaborations with other actors in the social networks. This study analyses two social networks of ECs in the Netherlands. It also examined the extent to which these networks can support ECs in five ways of upscaling (replication, growth in scale, accumulation, mainstreaming and transformation). 58 EC initiators were interviewed to determine their relationships with other actors in their networks. The study findings revealed that ECs interact primarily with province-level intermediaries, municipalities and other ECs, which results in replication, growth in scale and accumulation. ECs should collaborate with more diverse actors to scale in terms of mainstreaming and transformation and to become serious contributors to the energy transition.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11672,"journal":{"name":"Energy Policy","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 114792"},"PeriodicalIF":9.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144685866","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Energy PolicyPub Date : 2025-07-23DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114784
Mahmud Hasan Riaz , Sohidul Islam , Zobayer Ahmed , Musa Khan , Md. Mustaqim Roshid , Bablu Kumar Dhar , Mohammad Sharif Uddin
{"title":"Nonlinear effects of ICT-trade openness on sustainable energy transition in Bangladesh","authors":"Mahmud Hasan Riaz , Sohidul Islam , Zobayer Ahmed , Musa Khan , Md. Mustaqim Roshid , Bablu Kumar Dhar , Mohammad Sharif Uddin","doi":"10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114784","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114784","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study explores the impact of ICT-trade openness on Bangladesh's sustainable energy transition over the period 1991–2023. <strong>Sustainable energy transition is conceptualized here as a multidimensional process encompassing renewable energy adoption, energy efficiency improvements, expanded access to clean cooking technologies, and reductions in CO<sub>2</sub> emissions.</strong> Motivated by the growing importance of digital integration in low-carbon development, this analysis investigates whether ICT-trade openness facilitates progress across these dimensions. Using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model, the study captures both short- and long-term <strong>nonlinear threshold effects</strong> of ICT-trade openness on energy and environmental indicators. The results reveal a nonlinear relationship: <strong>moderate levels of ICT trade integration stimulate positive sustainability outcomes,</strong> while <strong>excessive openness results in diminishing returns due to infrastructural bottlenecks, technological mismatch, and policy fragmentation.</strong> The findings also highlight a dual effect on CO<sub>2</sub> emissions—initial increases associated with rising energy demand are mitigated over time through renewable energy integration. These outcomes underscore the importance of <strong>strategically managed ICT trade policies that align digital expansion with sustainable energy infrastructure and institutional readiness.</strong> The study offers novel empirical insights and actionable policy recommendations for aligning digital globalization with climate and energy goals in developing economies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11672,"journal":{"name":"Energy Policy","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 114784"},"PeriodicalIF":9.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144685868","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}