Abstract:The purpose of this study is to discover the factors shaping public opinion about renewable energy sources and investigate willingness to pay for expansion of renewable energy sources in the electricity mix. Data was collected through a questionnaire applied in Nikaia, an urban municipality of Greece. The respondents have a positive attitude towards renewable energy systems. Most of them have good knowledge of solar and wind energy systems and are using solar water heating, while several respondents own a solar PV system. Environmental protection is seen as the most important reason for investing in a renewable energy system. Willingness to pay for a wider penetration of RES into the electricity mix was estimated to be 26.5 euros per quarterly electricity bill. The statistical analysis revealed the existence of a relationship between RES perceived advantages and willingness to pay for renewable energy. Furthermore, by using a binary logit model, willingness to pay was found to be positively associated with education, energy subsidies, and state support.

This paper aims at examining the relationship between energy consumption deriving from renewable energy sources, and countries’ economic growth expressed as GDP per capita concerning 25 European countries. The used dataset involves European countries’ data for the period from 2007 to 2016. The statistical analysis is based on descriptive statistics, cluster analysis, and autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL), and reveals that all variables are related; this suggests a correlation between the dependent variable of GDP and the independents of renewable energy sources (RES) and Non-RES energy consumption, gross fixed capital formation, and labor force in the long-run. Furthermore, the results show that there is a higher correlation between RES’ consumption and the economic growth of countries of higher GDP than with those of lower GDP. The obtained results are consistent with other papers reviewed in this study.

The present research investigates the contribution of environmental innovation to firms’ competitive advantage through the case of medium and large-sized firms operating in Greece. Due to the growing trend of environmental innovation in Greece and a consequent increase in the research interest, this paper fills the existing gap in the relevant literature as there is not enough evidence concerning Greek firms’ environmental innovation practices. To meet the research goal, a questionnaire was distributed to 892 medium and large-sized firms operating in Greece; 225 questionnaires were finally responded. The data is based on firms’ self-assessment concerning environmental innovation and competitive advantage and are analyzed using both descriptive and inductive statistics, including principal components analysis and multiple linear regression. The research results show that the examined firms implement environmental innovation practices at a moderate level. The most common practices of environmental innovation are the implementation of ISO 14001 management systems and the toxic substances usage reduction. The percentage of ISO 14001 implementation is increased compared to the previous years. Furthermore, the regression analysis revealed that the components concerning environmental process innovation and environmental product innovation have a positive impact on the examined firms’ competitive capability. The relationship between open innovation and environmental innovation and the contribution of open innovation dynamics are discussed as well.

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Measuring and analyzing public perceptions of the environment are becoming core elements in promoting environmental sustainability, which is a key goal to be achieved. The New Ecological Paradigm Scale (NEP) is used as a unidimensional measure of environmental attitudes as it is developed in order to measure the overall relationship between humans and the environment. A high NEP score is associated with high ecocentric orientation. This research aims to measure and analyze citizens’ NEP score in a Greek area. Overall, the statistical analysis verified the existence of the NEP subscales, indicated increased environmental awareness among the respondents and revealed that the respondents’ NEP score is correlated with the area of residence. Furthermore, the NEP score is correlated at a statistically significant level with respondents’ willingness to pay for renewable energy expansion.