More than 5 000 delegates from over 64 countries were registered for this conference. The research for this paper was done in collaboration with a master’s degree student in the Department, Miss Amanding Nakumuryango.

This paper is an effort to position South Africa internationally with regards to the country’s use and production of renewable energies through the years. Firstly, the evolution of total renewable energy usage, production and intensity (renewable energy usage/real output) within the South African economy in its entirety is examined. Secondly, the paper proceeds with an international comparison, placing South Africa among the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and African countries.

Two days later, Dr Inglesi-Lotz presented a paper entitled “The impact of renewable energy consumption to economic welfare: A panel data application” at the 51^st Meeting of the Euro Working Group on Financial Modelling (EWGFM) and 1^st Conference of the Research Centre for Energy Management (RCEM). This conference took place in London and was organised by the Research Center for Energy Management at ESCP Europe Business School, in collaboration with Cass Business School. More than 100 experts from primarily Europe exchanged views, opinions and ideas within the framework of recent developments on energy modelling and regulation.

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the impact of the renewable energy consumption on economic welfare by employing panel data techniques. The results show that the influence of renewable energy consumption or its share to the total energy mix on economic growth is positive and statistically significant. From a policy point of view, promoting renewable energies bears benefits not only for the environment, but also for the economic conditions of the countries.