Renewable electricity is a pillar of the sustainability transition being pursued through climate and energy policy strategies, and the European Green Deal represents a potential investment plan for this new phase of development. Economic growth can be influenced by the expansion of renewable electricity consumption, but the nature of their relationship is ambiguous and depends on various economic and policy factors. This paper investigates the long-run relationship between renewable electricity consumption and economic growth in selected countries over the period 1971–2015 using econometric panel data techniques that specifically address cross-country heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence. Our findings suggest that, on average, there is a significant positive long-term relationship between renewable electricity consumption and economic growth, although Granger causality is not detected. Regarding causality, we do find per capita economic growth to be a causal factor for total electricity consumption and fossil-fuel based electricity consumption.

可再生电力是通过气候和能源政策战略实现的可持续转型的支柱，而欧洲绿色协议代表了这一新发展阶段的潜在投资计划。经济增长可能会受到可再生电力消费扩张的影响，但两者关系的性质并不明确，取决于各种经济和政策因素。本文使用专门解决跨国异质性和横截面依赖性的计量经济学面板数据技术，研究了 1971 年至 2015 年期间选定国家可再生电力消耗与经济增长之间的长期关系。我们的研究结果表明，平均而言，尽管没有检测到格兰杰因果关系，但可再生电力消耗与经济增长之间存在显着的长期正相关关系。关于因果关系，我们确实发现人均经济增长是总电力消耗和基于化石燃料的电力消耗的因果因素。