Track: Undergraduate Student Paper Competition

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the energy sector. With the widespread closures of business and decrease in travels due to the pandemic, there have been significant falls in electricity, coal, gas, and nuclear power consumption. Disruptions in manufacturing facilities and pauses on construction projects bring uncertainty about energy growth in 2021. In the past, similar drops in emissions occurred such as the global financial crisis of 2008 but resulted in a rebound of global CO₂ emissions when the market recovered. However, the pandemic brings forth unique risks and uncertainties for industries and governments in having to balance safety with progress. For this COVID-19 related recession, governments have the chance to pivot energy consumption by incentivizing renewable energy sectors like wind, solar, hydrogen, and energy storage that reduce the carbon footprint. Investing in renewables could stimulate economic recovery and aid in the transition to a more sustainable future. However, we see significant declines in such investments. We investigate how the energy industry was affected by and could recover from the challenges set forth by the pandemic and how this recovery could incentivize clean energy technologies.