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Changing Energy in Economies

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Economics of Renewable Energy

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Abstract

The question of what economic mechanisms have driven changes in energy consumption during the last two centuries is addressed using statistical data. It is argued that a larger population, due to higher income, triggered a higher consumption of energy and fossil fuels. As the growth of agriculture and industries during the 1900s declined while services grew, the growth of that consumption was also saturated and specialisation in energy services emerged. Given those changes in the economic structure, the changes in energy consumption are explained with reference to the neo-classical train of thought about prices of scarce energy resources, the evolutionary viewpoint focused on progress in energy efficiency of technologies, and the behavioural one about value addition by energy services.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Director Sustainable Innovations Academy, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Yoram Krozer

  2. Visiting professor at the Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria

    Yoram Krozer

  3. Emeritus professor at the University of Twente, Enschade, The Netherlands

    Yoram Krozer

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  1. Yoram Krozer
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Krozer, Y. (2022). Changing Energy in Economies. In: Economics of Renewable Energy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90804-1_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90804-1_3

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