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Renewable energy is regarded as an effective method to alleviate environmental pollution and accelerate the green transition in China. This paper systematically investigates the impact of financial inclusion on renewable energy demand by using S-GMM model based on provincial data in the green finance era. This paper also analyzes the asymmetry, heterogeneity, and mediating mechanism in the nexus between financial inclusion and renewable energy demand, and highlights the following findings: (1) Improved financial inclusion can promote renewable energy development in China and present the characteristics of green finance; (2) the impact of financial inclusion on renewable energy demand is asymmetric and heterogeneous; specifically, this impact is much higher in northern China and the regions with higher renewable energy development; and (3) wind and photovoltaic power generation are effective mediators between financial inclusion and renewable energy industry, while the mediation effects of hydropower and nuclear power are not significant. New evidence in this study is presented for the achievement of green transition in China, as well as practical policy implications for improving financial inclusion and increasing renewable energy consumption. For instance, fiscal and tax incentives and green investment subsidies in the renewable energy sector need to be further improved. • This study explores the impact of financial inclusion (FI) on renewable energy demand (RED) in China. • Asymmetry, heterogeneity, and the mediating mechanism are further discussed. • Increased FI can promote RED , which presents the characteristics of green finance. • The impact of FI on RED is asymmetric and heterogeneous. • Wind and photovoltaic power are effective mediators between FI and RED. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the growing share of the climate-sensitive renewable energy market supply in China, estimating future energy drought risk (ED) is essential. In this paper, based on CMIP6, energy demand and power generation are estimated from 2023 to 2100 under SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5 climate scenarios, and ED is defined from high demand (HD), low wind-solar generation (LWS), and residual load (RL). The results show that the ED exacerbation is relatively high under the SSP5-8.5. Between 2023 and 2100, the duration and severity of HD and RL notably increase, while LWS changes are relatively weak. We find that HD and RL exhibit high summer risks in the south and high winter risk in the north. The return periods vary significantly and extends over time in most regions. Moreover, there are few ED when the installed power generation capacity (IPGC) is increased. When the IPGC increases by 2%–5%, the LWS will decrease at least 20%–72%. With a 10% increase, the LWS will be mitigated by at least 80%, whereas the mitigation for RL is limited, approximately 3–17% at different rates. This work performs the first evaluation of future ED and provides the useful references for risk mitigation in China based on CMIP6. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrated energy system is an important approach to promote large-scale utilization of renewable energy. Under the context of energy market reformation and technology advancement, the economic operation of integrated energy system confronts new challenges, in terms of multiple uncertainties, multi-timescale characteristics of heterogeneous energy, and coordinated operation of hybrid energy storage system. To this end, this paper investigates the multi-timescale rolling optimization of integrated energy system with hybrid energy storage system considering the above challenges. Firstly, a basic framework of an integrated energy system with hybrid energy storage system (consisting of battery and hydrogen storage) is proposed, and the typical devices are modeled in detail. Secondly, the parameters and variables are divided into fast/slow timescale according to dispatch needs, and the multi-timescale problem of heterogeneous energy and the coordinated operation of the hybrid energy storage system can be solved simultaneously through two-stage optimization. Thirdly, the dispatch model is incorporated into the framework of model predictive control, the uncertainty of price, renewable energy and load can be effectively handled. Finally, a case study is conducted using an industrial park in the southern coastal region of China, the comparison with the rule-based method shows 60.65% reduction in the operating cost of hybrid energy storage system, the comparison with robust optimization shows 7.01% reduction in the total cost of the system, thus the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method are verified. • The application of HESS in IES is considered and modeled in a more detailed way. • Based on the two-stage approach, the heterogeneous energy multi-timescale scheduling problem and the HESS coordinated operation problem of IES can be solved simultaneously. • The dispatch model is incorporated into MPC for rolling optimization, and multiple uncertainties are effectively handled. • Using an industrial park in the southern coastal region of China as case study, the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method are verified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving the deployment and penetration of renewable energy is considered to be the fundamental way to solve environmental problems, but whether higher penetration of renewable energy means higher energy efficiency remains to be empirically tested. To reveal the relationship between cleanliness and efficiency in the energy sector, this paper first uses the three-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA)method to measure the total factor energy efficiency (TFEE) of 30 provinces in China, and then applies static and dynamic panel threshold regression (PTR)models to estimate the nonlinear effect of renewable energy share on TFEE. The results show that renewable energy is usually beneficial for improving TFEE, but there are prominent heterogeneity and nonlinear characteristics in net electricity exporting and net electricity importing provinces. Renewable energy in low rather than high regimes can significantly improve energy efficiency, indicating that provinces with lower levels of economic development and energy consumption receive higher marginal energy efficiency and are more likely to achieve sustainable development goals. More renewable energy quotas should be given to economically developed and high energy consuming provinces, and comprehensive energy efficiency guarantees and improvement measures must be provided to achieve optimal emission mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]