THE NEED FOR GDP GROWTH AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY. EVIDENCE FROM ROMANIA

References: 17th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM 2017, www.sgem.org, SGEM2017 Conference Proceedings, ISBN 978-619-7408-07-2 / ISSN 1314-2704, 29 June - 5 July, 2017, Vol. 17, Issue 42, 599-610 pp, DOI: 10.5593/sgem2017/42/S17.075

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to assess the potential of renewable energy resources in Romania and the potential of distorting the energy resources consumption. In this respect, the authors compared the status of Romania with the status of two other countries, Estonia and Croatia, selected as their development of resource use productivity compared with the GDP expressed in euros, with 2010 as the reference year, is the closest to the growth Romania saw in 2000-2015. By considering, as measures, the average GDP in constant prices in euros, the final consumption and the energy intensity, the results showed that Romania is at a high level of consumption of resources that can easily produce distortions. It was also calculated the energy saving at national level, taking into account the overall energy saving and the renewable energy saving, since the overall consumption for producing GDP did not decrease to the desired level. A series of statistic tests were made in order to analyze the correlations between the following variables: GDP in euro at current prices, discount rate and intensity of renewable energy, consumption of renewable resources, GDP in euro at constant prices and exchange rate euro / leu. The linear regression was applied for the group of variables: GDP, renewable energy resources intensity and energy saving, in order to determine the influences of GDP and renewable energy intensity (as independent variables), considered separately, on the energy saving (as dependent variable). The results showed that both GDP and energy intensity have about the same influence on the energy saving.

Keywords: renewable resources, economic calculation, energy efficiency, energy intensity, Romania