ANALYSIS ON THE FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE UTILIZATION RATE OF RENEWABLE ENERGY IN THE FRAMEWORK OF MARXIST REPRODUCTION

Abstract: Developing the renewable energy to replace traditional fossil energy is not only an essential part of sustainable development strategies of most countries all over the world, but also an important theoretical issue that draws the attention of the academic circle. On the basis of a Marxian reproduction scheme, the essay analyzes the influence of market demand, technological progress and policy promotion on the utilization rate of renewable energy and their mechanisms during the development of the renewable energy industry. A panel data set of 28 OECD countries for 34 years is constructed to examine the role of market, technology and policy on renewable energy's utilization rate. In addition, based on theoretical analysis and econometrical analysis, market, policy and technology-the three main factors will go through a thorough analysis.Key words: utilization of renewable energy; Marxian reproduction scheme; energy policy(ProQuest: . denotes formulae omitted.)IntroductionThe renewable energy industry is the one which can ensure national energy security and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and the world's major industrialized countries have fully understood its importance and made the development of this industry an important part of their sustainable development strategy. However, after the rapid growth in the 1970s and 1980s, the renewable energy utilization worldwide gradually became stagnant in the 1990s and even displayed a declining trend in the 21st century, which showed that renewable energy is now in the bottleneck period (see Figure 1). Therefore, the barriers encountered in the application of renewable energy and the means to overcome these barriers have become a focus of the academic research.A considerable part of the literature has emphasized that the pressure of competition from the market and the challenge from technology bottlenecks were the main reasons for the stagnation of new energy industries and highlighted the role of the technological advances and the experience and the learning effects in reducing the cost of new energy production and improving their competitive advantage. For example, Zimmerman (1982) measured the positive externalities of the nuclear energy industry caused by the existence of spillover benefits of technology and learning curve opportunities. Christiansson (1995) studied the new energy industry experience curve and learning curve and used historical data to estimate the experience curve of both the wind energy industry and the solar industry and also estimated the impact of introduction of new technologies on the energy industry. Popp (2001) tested the role of the application of new technologies on energy efficiency through the data of U.S. patents and the energy consumption in various industrial sectors in different periods. Tahvonen and Salo (2001) studied transformation between the renewable energy and non-renewable energy in different stages of the development of economy on the basis of the endogenous growth model. Jacobsson (2004) made a systematic study of the technical difficulties and the corresponding solutions for the transformation from the economy system dependent on fossil fuels and other non-renewable energy sources to a sustainable energy system in the case of Sweden. Owen (2006) combining the energy industry characteristics with the greenhouse gas emissions, focused on the existence of market failures and government regulations in the development of a new energy industry.Another part of the literature discusses the rise in global warming in recent years and combines the development of the new energy industry and greenhouse gas emissions together to study the critical role of the development of new energy on climate change and the impact of governmental cooperation and international cooperation on the development of the new energy industry. Representative studies include: Grubler and Messner (1998) and Sims et al. …