Understanding the effect of energy security concerns on the deployment of renewable energy
Keywords
Loading...
Authors
Issue Date
2023-06-23
Language
en
Document type
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Title
ISSN
Volume
Issue
Startpage
Endpage
DOI
Abstract
The energy crisis of 2021-22 and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia brought back concerns about the continuity of the energy supply security to the forefront of the European political agenda. The subsequent reaction of the EU was aimed at completely ending the imports of Russian fossil fuels by 2030 (European Commission, 2022a). At the same time, the world at large is trying to limit global warming. To accomplish this, an immense energy transition is needed which involves shifting away from fossil fuels towards renewable energy. The necessity to manage energy security concerns while at the same time increasing the deployment of renewable energy has brought up questions about how concerns about energy security affect the deployment of renewables. Current academic literature is unclear about the exact relationship between the two, with some arguing that energy security concerns can be seen as a driver of the deployment of renewables (Marques et al., 2010; Papież et al., 2018), while others find no relationship or even a negative relationship (Aguirre & Ibikunle, 2014; Bourcet, 2020). This thesis therefore aims to fill this gap in the literature by asking the following question: what is the effect of energy security concerns on the deployment of renewable energy? To answer this question this study employs process tracing on a single case. The European Union is selected for this case study as it provides a truly unique case. The analysis encompasses a 50-year time span, running from 1973 until 2023. This study finds that within the EU energy security concerns can be seen as driving the deployment of renewable energy, as the benefits of renewables for European energy security are ever present in the justification for increased deployment of renewable energy. Also, the European energy security strategy consistently puts emphasis on increasing the deployment of renewables across the Union. This gets reiterated and often increased during and immediately after times of heightened concerns about energy security. The uniqueness of the European Union as a case, however, prohibits any generalizations of these findings. Therefore, further research is needed to uncover if the causal mechanisms that are present within the EU can also be found in other contexts.
Description
Citation
Supervisor
Faculty
Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen