Influence of Renewable "Green" Energy on the Economic Development of the EU States

Abstract

This article reveals the economic importance of solar energy development in the European Union in recent years. It defines the structure of energy consumption in EU countries. This structure allows us to determine how much income energy companies receive from solar electricity consumption by the population and industry. The article determines that solar energy is essential for the countries. Therefore, like any other sectors of the national economy, it forms the gross domestic product. In addition, energy companies pay taxes to the budget, which shows the economic importance of solar energy development, comparing state investments with tax revenues. The research aims to show the financial importance of solar energy for the state, i.e., how much income the state will receive in the budget by supporting solar energy development. To achieve the goal, methods of economic analysis and economic-mathematical modeling were used. They allowed confirming the hypothesis about the feasibility of investing in solar energy in European countries. The research is based on the statistical materials of 2014-2019 on the generation of solar energy, investments in it, and state budget revenues from the taxation of produced solar power. This study proves for the first time that an increase in solar energy production is beneficial to the state, despite the low level of return on investment in the construction of solar power plants by the state. Based on economic and mathematical modeling results, a linear dependence was built, which allows forecasting the volume of tax revenues from the construction of solar power plants and electricity prices. Thus, the hypothesis about the economic feasibility of investing in solar power is confirmed.