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Green Economics and Sustainable Management of Energy Sources

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A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "C: Energy Economics and Policy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 September 2023) | Viewed by 31101

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Tetyana Pimonenko

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Guest Editor

Department of Marketing, Sumy State University, 40007 Sumy, Ukraine
Interests: green economy; renewable energy; green marketing; green brand; green investment; green bonds; environmental management and audit in the corporate sector of economy; sustainable development and education

Dr. Oleksii Lyulyov

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Guest Editor

Marketing Department, Sumy State University, 40007 Sumy, Ukraine
Interests: digital marketing; artificial intelligence in marketing; innovative development; sustainable economic development; strategy development; modelling and forecasting development trends
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Henryk Dźwigoł

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Guest Editor

Department of Management and Logistics, Faculty of Organization and Management, Silesian University of Technology, 41-800 Zabrze, Poland
Interests: research methodology; development strategy; innovative development; sustainable economic development; sustainable management; industry 4.0; energy management; energy policy

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The changes of the worldwide paradigm from resource-based development to green and sustainable development require an adequate response from the worldwide community. This Special Issue focuses on broad aspects of green growth, sustainable development, renewable energy, green investments, and green mindset. This Special Issue aims at stimulating researchers’ debate on government policy, business, and communities’ initiatives to spread the philosophy of the green economy and raise green awareness among the worldwide community.

Contributions on the following topics, among others, are invited to the Special Issue:

Green energy and energy security;
Green growth and energy efficiency;
Green economics and public health;
Green innovation for a sustainable energy future;
Green investment to cope with climate change and energy transition;
Energy management and sustainable economic development;
Green brand and sustainable development;
Energy systems and green growth via COVID-19;
Artificial intelligence and energy sustainability;
Sustainable management for Industry 4.0;
The EU Green Deal’s impact on sustainable management of energy sources;
Marketing for green energy development;
Renewable energies and economic growth;
Smart grids, and green communications for smart infrastructure.

We are pleased to invite you to submit your original research papers to this Special Issue on “Green Economics and Sustainable Management of Energy Sources”.

Dr. Tetyana Pimonenko
Dr. Oleksii Lyulyov
Prof. Dr. Henryk Dźwigoł
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Artificial intelligence
Circular economy
Cognitive technologies
Energy efficiency
Energy markets
Energy securities
Environmental management
The EU Green Deal
Green bonds
Green energy
Green innovation
Green marketing
Industry 4.0
Sustainable development
Sustainable management
Sustainable Development Goals

Published Papers (10 papers)

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Research

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17 pages, 2846 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Impact of Investments and R&D Costs in Renewable Energy Technologies on Companies’ Profitability Indicators: Assessment and Forecast

by Olha Prokopenko, Tetiana Kurbatova, Marina Khalilova, Anastasiia Zerkal, Gunnar Prause, Jacek Binda, Temur Berdiyorov, Yuriy Klapkiv, Sabina Sanetra-Półgrabi and Igor Komarnitskyi

Energies 2023, 16(3), 1021; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16031021 - 17 Jan 2023

Cited by 18 | Viewed by 3433

Abstract

Renewable energy technologies play a crucial role in solving global energy and environmental issues, and the pace of the energy transition directly depends on improving their efficiency. Presently, the development and implementation of renewable energy systems are ensured mainly through state funding, the possibilities of which are limited. The potential of attracting private investments depends directly on their impact on companies’ profitability indicators, and the uncertainty regarding the return on investments is one of the main barriers affecting investors’ decision-making. Based on a vector autoregressive model for analysing the stationary time series, the paper explores the impact of long-term investments and research and development costs in renewable energy technologies on the financial performance of ten of the largest companies operating in this field. The study’s results showed that investments and spending on research and development positively affect such companies’ profitability indicators as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, earnings before interest and tax, net income, and return on investment. The obtained results can be used to substantiate the economic effectiveness of investments in developing and improving renewable energy technologies when forming the companies’ financial policies to support them. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Economics and Sustainable Management of Energy Sources)

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19 pages, 2794 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Cognitive Computing—Will It Be the Future “Smart Power” for the Energy Enterprises?

by Olga Pilipczuk

Energies 2022, 15(17), 6216; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15176216 - 26 Aug 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1801

Abstract

Nowadays, cognitive computing has become the popular solution to many problems arising in the energy industry, such as the creation of renewable technologies, energy saving, and searching for new sources. Last decade, a substantial number of scientific papers aiming to support these tasks were published. On the other hand, some years ago, the “cognitive enterprise” (CE) concept was introduced by the IBM company, which assumes, among others, the cognitive technologies used to increase enterprise intelligence. On the road to obtaining the status of a “cognitive enterprise”, it should overcome many challenges. Thus, the aim of the paper was to analyze the current state of research on the application of cognitive computing in the energy industry and to define the trends, challenges, milestones, and perspectives in scientific work’s development. The aim has been achieved using the bibliometric approach. The preliminary analysis was made by Web of Science data sources; 4182 records were retrieved. The results comprise the research field, geographic distribution of research, time analysis, and affiliation analysis. Additionally, descriptive statistics, as well as simple forecasting, were provided to present the research results. As a result of the research, the publication history road was created as well as the milestone framework on the path toward “cognitive enterprise”. The findings of this research can contribute to literature and practice by applying them to the process of cognitive enterprise models’ development as well as by adapting the education programs and training courses for enterprises and universities to market requirements. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Economics and Sustainable Management of Energy Sources)

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20 pages, 1824 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Management Perspectives towards the Data-Driven Organization in the Energy Sector

by Irina Bogdana Pugna, Dana Maria Boldeanu, Mirela Gheorghe, Gabriel Cozgarea and Adrian Nicolae Cozgarea

Energies 2022, 15(16), 5775; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15165775 - 9 Aug 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1685

Abstract

This paper explores the current attitudes of managers and executives working in the energy sector towards the Data-Driven Organizational Model implied by Big Data. The aim is to explore and understand the current mindset of senior decision makers, since their success depends as much on cognitive and behavioral processes as on their technical competences. We adopt a grounded-theory approach, developing models of understanding and belief abductively, driven by the data obtained from participants through a reflection guide. We find that managers differ significantly in their understanding and engagement with their challenges; they display interest but differ in their commitment and enthusiasm; they identify a lack of strategy and skills as current barriers; and they are currently unwilling to trust data, treating evidence according to their own prior commitments. This is a significant barrier to establishing the Data-Driven Organizational Model. These findings raise concerns, and the paper concludes that by considering initiatives for implementing more agile and forward-looking approaches, establishing a data-driven organizational culture, and managing such changes effectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Economics and Sustainable Management of Energy Sources)

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13 pages, 3449 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Carbon-Neutral Cellular Network Operation Based on Deep Reinforcement Learning

by Hojin Kim, Jaewoo So and Hongseok Kim

Energies 2022, 15(12), 4504; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15124504 - 20 Jun 2022

Viewed by 1403

Abstract

With the exponential growth of traffic demand, ultra-dense networks have been proposed to cope with such demand. However, the increase of the network density causes more power use, and carbon neutrality becomes an important concept to decrease the emission and production of carbon. In cellular networks, emission and production can be directly related to power consumption. In this paper, we aim to achieve carbon neutrality, as well as maximize network capacity with given power constraints. We assume that base stations have their own renewable energy sources to generate power. For carbon neutrality, we control the power consumption for base stations by adjusting the transmission power and switching off base stations to balance the generated power. Given such power constraints, our goal is to maximize the network capacity or the rate achievable for the users. To this end, we carefully design the objective function and then propose an efficient Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG) algorithm to maximize the objective. A simulation is conducted to validate the benefits of the proposed method. Extensive simulations show that the proposed method can achieve carbon neutrality and provide a better rate than other baseline schemes. Specifically, up to a 63% gain in the reward value was observed in the DDPG algorithm compared to other baseline schemes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Economics and Sustainable Management of Energy Sources)

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15 pages, 536 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Role of Crypto Trading in the Economy, Renewable Energy Consumption and Ecological Degradation

by Radosław Miśkiewicz, Krzysztof Matan and Jakub Karnowski

Energies 2022, 15(10), 3805; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15103805 - 22 May 2022

Cited by 78 | Viewed by 4403

Abstract

The rapid growth of information technology and industrial revolutions provoked digital transformation of all sectors, from the government to households. Moreover, digital transformations led to the development of cryptocurrency. However, crypto trading provokes a dilemma loop. On the one hand, crypto trading led to economic development, which allowed attracting additional resources to extending smart and green technologies for de-carbonising the economic growth. On the other hand, crypto trading led to intensifying energy sources, which provoked an increase in greenhouse gas emissions and environmental degradation. The paper aims to analyse the connections between crypto trading, economic development of the country, renewable energy consumption, and environmental degradation. The data for analysis were obtained from: Our World in Data, World Data Bank, Eurostat, Ukrstat, Crystal Blockchain, and KOF Globalisation Index. To check the hypothesis, the paper applied the Pedroni and Kao panel cointegration tests, FMOLS and DOLS panel cointegration models, and Vector Error Correction Models. The findings concluded that the increasing crypto trading led to enhanced GDP, real gross fixed capital formation, and globalisation. However, in the long run, the relationship between crypto trading and the share of renewable energies in total energy consumption was not confirmed by the empirical results. For further directions, it is necessary to analyse the impact of crypto trading on land and water pollution. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Economics and Sustainable Management of Energy Sources)

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17 pages, 2918 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Digitalization—The Engine of Sustainability in the Energy Industry

by Florin Mihai, Ofelia Ema Aleca, Andrei Stanciu, Mirela Gheorghe and Mirela Stan

Energies 2022, 15(6), 2164; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15062164 - 16 Mar 2022

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2617

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to conduct a bibliometric analysis of the scientific literature about the sustainability of digitalization in the energy sector in order to capture the main challenges and trends in the transition towards it. The bibliometric analysis of the scientific literature was carried out by interrogating the Scopus database, using a set of keywords considered relevant for the analyzed field and for the goal of the proposed research. The purpose of the study was, on the one hand, the depth of the research into these topics during the 2013–2021 period, in terms of the number of scientific papers, the topic, abstract and keywords associated, the geographical area of origin and the authors’ affiliation and on the other hand, an analysis of the existence of possible links between these topics formulated through three hypotheses. The results obtained reveal the researchers’ concerns for digitalization in the energy sector, the existing correlations between the keywords analyzed and the tendencies registered in the field of digitalization in the energy industry in order to ensure higher sustainability. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Economics and Sustainable Management of Energy Sources)

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27 pages, 13171 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Factors Influencing the Renewable Energy Consumption in Selected European Countries

by Jan Polcyn, Yana Us, Oleksii Lyulyov, Tetyana Pimonenko and Aleksy Kwilinski

Energies 2022, 15(1), 108; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15010108 - 23 Dec 2021

Cited by 99 | Viewed by 6077

Abstract

The overcoming of the issues on energy crisis and inequality have become the priorities as far developing as developed countries are concerned. Moreover, energy inequality has increased due to the shortage of natural gas and rising energy prices in retaliation to the economic recovery affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to verify the linkage between the growth of renewable energy consumption and the country’s economic advancement. In this context, this paper determines the main driving forces of renewable energy consumption in European countries during 2000–2018. The annual data for panel regression analysis are retrieved from the OECD. Stat and World Bank Open Data. This empirical analysis employed a set of estimation procedures such as the panel unit root test (Levin, Lin & Chu; Im, Pesaran, Shin W-Stat; ADF-Fisher Chi-square; and PP-Fisher Chi-square methods), the Pearson correlation, fixed- and random-effects models, generalized method of moments (GMM), Hausman and the robustness tests. The results from the Hausman test ratified that the fixed-effects regression model is more suitable for involved panel balanced data. The results of fixed-effects regression and GMM identified the statistically significant and positive relationship between the share of renewable energy consumption of total final energy consumption, GDP per capita, and CO₂ emissions per capita for the overall sample. In turn, the total labor force, the gross capital formation, and production-based CO₂ intensity are inversely related to renewable energy consumption. The identified effects could provide some insights for policymakers to improve the renewable energy sector towards gaining sustainable economic development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Economics and Sustainable Management of Energy Sources)

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14 pages, 299 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Energy Efficiency in the Industry 4.0 Era: Attributes of Teal Organisations

by Radosław Miśkiewicz, Agnieszka Rzepka, Ryszard Borowiecki and Zbigniew Olesińki

Energies 2021, 14(20), 6776; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14206776 - 17 Oct 2021

Cited by 63 | Viewed by 2417

Abstract

The rapid development of innovations in the industry 4.0 era led to new or evolved companies. At the same time, the accepted concept of carbon-free development requires building a new philosophy for the company’s management. The paper aims to analyse the key attributes of teal organisations (as a new type of a company) from the energy sector (as a core sector for carbon-free transformation). The paper summarises the core features of teal organisations and their attributes. In the paper, three hypotheses are tested: innovations and technologies are the most used attributes among teal organisations from the energy sector; organisational and corporate culture are the least used attributes among teal organisations from the energy sector; in the energy sector, the companies that have the attributes of teal organisations primarily work in countries with a high level of innovation and information technologies (as a core indicator of Industry 4.0) and economic development. For testing the hypotheses, the following methods are applied: a Friedman test, a paired-samples t-test, the principal components analysis, a correlation analysis, an ANOVA test (analysis of variance), and a regression analysis. The online survey generates the data for analysis. The object of the research is the workers from the energy sector companies from five countries (Poland, Ukraine, Georgia, Slovakia, and Romania). The findings of the statistical analysis confirm the first and second hypotheses. Companies in the energy sector mostly use innovations and technologies as the attributes of teal organisations. The regression analysis results show that an increase of 1% of patent applications leads to an increased energy efficiency of 1.29%. Additionally, the implemented features of teal organisations in the energy sector allow for improving the country’s energy efficiency, which, as a consequence, then boosts carbon-free development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Economics and Sustainable Management of Energy Sources)

Review

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18 pages, 2674 KiB

Open AccessReview

Corporate Social Responsibility and Renewable Energy Development for the Green Brand within SDGs: A Meta-Analytic Review

by Yana Us, Tetyana Pimonenko and Oleksii Lyulyov

Energies 2023, 16(5), 2335; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16052335 - 28 Feb 2023

Cited by 18 | Viewed by 2469

Abstract

This study aimed to systemize global scholarly publications on corporate social responsibility and renewable energy to detect their influence on green brand development within the SDGs. The initial data are retrieved from the Scopus database. To operate with the most relevant publications, several limitations were applied. The research sample consists of the 2000 most cited articles in the subject areas of (1) Social Sciences, (2) Business, Management, and Accounting, and (3) Economics, Econometrics, and Finance. This study is carried out in the following logical sequence. The first stage involves searching, collecting, and preprocessing articles representing the investigated topic. Then, several bibliometric techniques were employed to analyze and map the findings. The third stage integrated the obtained results and discussed future research directions. This paper offers some theoretical implications by analyzing and visualizing the investigated scientific output, particularly publication dynamics, the main trends in the investigated research field, the most productive scholars and their collaborations, and the contributions of the journals, affiliations, and countries analyzed. In addition, this study makes some practical contributions and could be used by scholars as detailed instructions for conducting bibliometric analyses in different contexts. Furthermore, researchers could exploit and expand their current study directions using the findings of this paper. However, the findings of this study are limited since they consider only articles from the Scopus database. Therefore, it is appropriate that further studies involve a broader data range. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Economics and Sustainable Management of Energy Sources)

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17 pages, 1631 KiB

Open AccessReview

Review of Selected Aspects of Wind Energy Market Development in Poland and Lithuania in the Face of Current Challenges

by Ewa Chomać-Pierzecka, Hubert Gąsiński, Joanna Rogozińska-Mitrut, Dariusz Soboń and Sebastian Zupok

Energies 2023, 16(1), 473; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16010473 - 1 Jan 2023

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2064

Abstract

The disruption of fossil fuel supply chains due to the war in Ukraine has resulted in the need for an urgent reorganisation of the energy supply system, the cost of which has created a substantial increase in electricity prices in many markets. In light of the above, the need for the development of a renewable energy market has become stronger than ever; hence, the authors of this study have oriented their efforts towards investigating the development of the renewable energy market in countries bordering the line of armed conflict in Ukraine, i.e., Poland—strongly dependent on traditional forms of energy production—and Lithuania. The primary objective of the paper is to review the literature on wind energy, which is necessary to establish the current role of this energy dimension in the renewable energy market in the energy systems of Poland and Lithuania. Therefore, this review paper is oriented towards a review and evaluation of the available thematic literature and industry studies, as well as conclusions related to the number and direction of research topics in the area of the explored issues. The basic finding of this review is that the reviewed literature and studies are most strongly oriented towards a general assessment of the ongoing energy transition in the world, in which the thread of the assessment of the energy situation in Poland and Lithuania, including the thread of the analysis of wind energy, is part of broader assessments, most often regarding EU countries. The wind energy of the countries included in the scope of the review is not discussed comprehensively. The gap identified in this respect relates in particular to the aspect of wind energy development potential concerning solutions targeted at the individual consumer. In quantitative terms, studies addressing wind energy in Lithuania represent a lower percentage of the thematic literature acquired for the review. In the area of noted niches, the need for research and analysis is recommended to increase the information supply for developing the renewable energy market in Poland and Lithuania. In doing so, it is important to explore the technical and technological solutions (with a focus on the individual customer) and the economic aspects of wind installations from a micro and macro perspective. In addition, there is a lack of sufficient studies revealing the position of public opinion regarding the development of this dimension of the RES market and the direction of its changes. This is an important problem—particularly in Poland, where the so-called distance law constantly blocks the development of this dimension of RES and where the need to develop energy from renewable sources is particularly urgent. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Economics and Sustainable Management of Energy Sources)

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