Wind energy and sustainable electricity generation: evidence from Germany

Wind energy is one of the renewable energy sources that has been touted to address the challenges of energy security and environmental degradation. This is only attainable if countries with substantial wind energy potential use it in significant proportion to satisfy their energy needs. One promising sector where wind energy can be employed to actualize this potential is the electricity sector. However, the current reality is that fossil fuels still dominate the energy profiles of most economies of the world, including the advanced economies, with wind renewable energy source accounting for a very small proportion of the energy mix. Germany is one of the few countries that offers promising opportunities in deploying wind energy to its full potentials. This study therefore explores the feasibility of substituting wind energy for nuclear energy and other fossil fuels using Germany as a country of focus. We use the ridge regression procedure to analyse yearly time series data for the German power sector that spans the period 1986 to 2018. With respect to output elasticities of the energy inputs, the results reveal that wind and natural gas have positive output elasticity estimates while the estimates for nuclear and coal are negative. We also found that all the inputs pairs have positive substitution elasticity estimates between them. With respect to wind energy, the highest substitutability estimate occurred with nuclear power which is followed by natural gas and then coal. The study recommended that policies such as granting of tax credit for wind energy technology, reduction in property taxes for wind power facilities, and allocation of fund for research and development (R&D) in wind energy technology are recommended to promote the use of wind energy in the economy.

Automated summary

This study explores the feasibility of substituting wind energy for nuclear energy and other fossil fuels in Germany. Results show that wind and natural gas have positive output elasticity, while nuclear and coal have negative. All input pairs have positive substitution elasticity estimates, with wind energy showing highest substitutability with nuclear power, followed by natural gas and then coal.