Energy mix and intensity in Portugal

Abstract

This article presents the path of several aggregate energy indicators for Portugal and the Euro area in the last three decades. In addition, we use Portuguese firm-level data on electricity and liquid fuels expenditures to assess firms’ electrification and efficiency, while also correlating those indicators with their size. The article ultimately aims at sheding light on the pace of transformation towards an electrically driven, renewable and energy efficient economy. Overall, we identify some progress in the renewable-based electrification of the Portuguese and Euro area economies, as well as sizeable progress in energy intensity in Portugal since the mid 2000s. Moreover, controlling for firms’ heterogeneity, we find a robust negative correlation between energy intensity and firms’ size and partial evidence of a negative correlation between the share of electricity on total energy expenditures and firms’ size. Finally, we identify a negative correlation between the share of electricity on firms’ energy expenditure and their energy intensity ratio.