Asymmetries in energy consumption: Efficiency of public spending across Portuguese municipalities

This paper reviews the literature on energy consumption behavior for both domestic and migrated/displaced population and aims to recommend crucial policy measures for creating awareness on the energy efficiency. Consumers’ adoption to the efficient usage of energy varies depending on demographic, behavioral and situational dynamics in their households and societies. The regional or national strategies to implement efficient technologies for the consumer engagement are crucial to change their behaviors. Migrants affect the energy usage patterns in the host country due to their different usage behaviors. Any type of measures for migrated population should include available, acceptable, accessible and affordable energy efficiency applications to engage them with the domestic population.

The article deals with a current trend of the global energy market, which is characterized by rising tension in relations between the performers of the energy market regulation mechanisms, and it leads to the emergence of alternative energy sources. The article is called to identify the causes of renewable energy markets nascence, to make comparative description of Ukrainian and European Renewable Energy Markets attractiveness, and to characterize the state policy change in a renewable energy market. Different interpretation of nature and classification of the field of renewable energy in foreign and Ukrainian approaches shows the problem of legal criteria of renewable energy markets regulation. It is proved the existence of double barrier penetration of the European market for renewable energy for Ukrainian companies, which includes compliance with the accepted EU Directives and compliance with the Rules of each member individually. The presence of clearly defined standards and certificates of quality for the European market allows producers to show the competitiveness of Ukrainian products in the international market and stimulate Ukrainian manufacturers. The presence of clearly formulated laws, stable and balanced political and legal environment of the EU allows Ukrainian producers of renewable energy to develop such a strategy that considers the time factor, as the primary parameter of competitiveness in international business. The market of solid biofuels in EU is under formation, its development timeframe and uncertainty of environmental risks becoming is especially important for Ukrainian producers.

It is assumed that technological progress plays a vital role in energy efficiency improvements when the effects of industrial restructuring, infrastructure, environmental challenges, and economic shocks seem more dubious. However, a limited number of studies have been conducted to examine the impact of technological innovation on countries’ energy efficiency levels. This study aims to explore the relationship between energy efficiency, technological innovation, and economic growth in 30 European countries by utilizing data from 2012 to 2020. To this end, a two-stage analysis is carried out. The first step involves estimating the total factor energy efficiency (TFEE) by the countries to illustrate the effects of energy parameters on economic growth and the environment, and technological innovation (TI) to estimate the innovation capability of each country by using data envelopment analysis (DEA) methodology. The second step includes a panel regression model to explore how technological innovation affects energy efficiency, considering the degree of government intervention, industrial structure, infrastructure, and economic openness.
The results indicate that the bottom-15 countries, whose TFEE scores were the lowest, are mainly countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Regarding the countries’ technological capability, the results were similar, but the score was lower than the TFEE.
Moreover, the regression analysis shows that a one percent increase in innovation activity contributes to an increase in energy efficiency by 0.27 percent. Hence, it confirms the notion of a positive impact of new technology on energy efficiency.

Acknowledgments
The study is supported by the grant from the Research Based Innovation “SFI Marine Operation in Virtual Environment (SFI-MOVE)” (Project No. 237929) in Norway.