Analyzing the hysteresis properties and growth stability of renewable energy production of the U.S

Abstract

By applying the non-linear quantile unit-root test and Fourier quantile unit-root test, this research investigates the hysteresis properties and growth stability of total and disaggregated renewable energy productions in the U.S. from 1973:01 to 2019:08. Unlike traditional unit-root tests that fail to reject the unit-root hypothesis, our results indicate that all renewable energy production series are stationary, but the degrees of persistence for positive and negative shocks are energy source-specific. In most cases, the negative shocks have more long-lasting effects than positive shocks. Evidence also shows that the growth rates in total biomass, hydroelectric power, wind, and biofuel energies have experienced a slowdown/meltdown, while other types of renewable energies have exhibited increasing growth rates in the current decade. Knowledge of these hysteresis/stability properties can help prevent governments from initiating a ‘one-size-fits-all’ policy.