Renewable Energy Deployment and COVID-19 Measures for Sustainable Development

Abstract

The main goal of this study is to evaluate the impact of restrictive measures introduced in connection with COVID-19 on consumption in renewable energy markets. The study will be based on the hypothesis that similar changes in human behavior can be expected in the future with the further spread of COVID-19 and/or the introduction of additional quarantine measures around the world. The analysis also yielded additional results. The strongest reductions in energy generation occurred in countries with a high percentage (more than 80%) of urban population (Brazil, USA, the United Kingdom and Germany). This study uses two models created with the Keras Long Short-Term Memory (Keras LSTM) Model, and 76 and 10 parameters are involved. This article suggests that various restrictive strategies reduced the sustainable demand for renewable energy and led to a drop in economic growth, slowing the growth of COVID-19 infections in 2020. It is unknown to what extent the observed slowdown in the spread from March 2020 to September 2020 due to the policy’s impact and not the interaction between the virus and the external environment. All renewable energy producers decreased the volume of renewable energy market supply in 2020 (except China).

Impact of Renewable Energy on Economic Growth and CO2 Emissions—Evidence from BRICS Countries

“…The unit elasticity theory, which tends to measure the change in economic growth concerning change in energy consumption, has gained much prominence after the oil crisis of 1973, also known as the C74 crisis, and its impact on the OECD countries during this period. The unit elasticity for energy usage after that period has been recorded as less than 1%, which signifies that 1% economic growth requires a less than 1% increase in energy usage as far as OECD countries were concerned [17,18]. However, no one can deny the critical role energy consumption plays in generating GDP growth, mainly via industrial development.…”

“…At the same time, a major obstacle to renewable energy sources seems to be political barriers, such as obstructive policies based upon self-interest, problems related to coordination of activities, and problems related to geopolitical issues. These problems are further compounded by the limited research in the area [18,25].…”

Quantifying Air Pollutant Variations during COVID-19 Lockdown in a Capital City in Northwest China

“…Additionally, this study referenced and categorized relevant domestic and international results (also covering previous years and months of the lockdown period) to summarize the characteristics of various air pollutants in several regions and to obtain a more in-depth understanding of air quality improvement and PM 2.5 compositions in Xi'an during this event. The lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic provided an opportunity to perform a natural experiment for evaluating air quality responses to drastic emission reduction, and it is helpful to formulating more targeted policies in this heavily polluted area and sustainable development [33,42,43]. In line with this, future awareness campaigns should focus more on a multidisciplinary area in practitioners from all walks of life towards Penta Helix Collaboration [44][45][46] in the post-COVID-19 world [47,48].…”

Renewable Energy, Economic Growth and Economic Development Nexus: A Bibliometric Analysis

“…In studies dealing with territories for the European continent [207], it was concluded that renewable energy development policies improve the social factors studied (government policy, general public awareness, the market, lobbying activity) [207]. Russia was studied in [208], and the United Kingdom and Germany in [209] together with the USA and Brazil. On the Asian continent, Iran, China and Cambodia were investigated by [210,211] and [212], respectively.…”