Althani Nourah A, Elzaki Raga M, Alzahrani Fahad
Department of Agribusiness and Consumer Science, College of Agriculture and Food Sciences, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa 31982, Saudi Arabia.
Foods. 2025 May 18;14(10):1797. doi: 10.3390/foods14101797.
The rising global demand for food and energy has led to growing attention to the nexus between food security and renewable energy. This study aims to investigate the impacts and shocks of renewable energy consumption, particularly solar and wind energy, on food availability and stability in Saudi Arabia, by assessing both short-term and long-term effects. We use the time series annual data covering the period (2000-2022) analyzed by applying the Vector Autoregressive (VAR) model system and its environment, Granger causality, the forecast-error variance decompositions (FEVD), and the impulse response functions (IRFs). The VAR results indicated that wind renewable energy positively affects food availability; one unit of wind energy consumption will significantly increase food availability by 3.16% (Z value 2.017 at a 5% significance level), and no statistically significant coefficients are associated with food stability. Also, the results confirmed that one unit of renewable energy consumption from solar will significantly increase food stability by 36.5% in Saudi Arabia (Z-value 1.682 at a 10% significance level). The Granger causality results concluded that solar energy has a bidirectional Granger causality with food availability but not food stability. The FEVD results showed that solar energy shocks have more persistent impacts in explaining the rapid increase in food security than wind energy shocks in both the short and long term. The IRFs concluded that food availability has shown a positive and steady increase in response to wind energy. This study provides practical recommendations for policymakers to balance energy transition goals with food security concerns. Future research should explore emerging technologies in wind and solar energy that can enhance efficiency and sustainability while minimizing adverse effects on food security.
全球对粮食和能源的需求不断上升，使得人们越来越关注粮食安全与可再生能源之间的关系。本研究旨在通过评估短期和长期影响，调查可再生能源消费，特别是太阳能和风能，对沙特阿拉伯粮食供应和稳定性的影响及冲击。我们使用了涵盖2000 - 2022年期间的时间序列年度数据，通过应用向量自回归（VAR）模型系统及其环境、格兰杰因果关系、预测误差方差分解（FEVD）和脉冲响应函数（IRF）进行分析。VAR结果表明，风能可再生能源对粮食供应有积极影响；一单位风能消费将使粮食供应显著增加3.16%（在5%显著性水平下Z值为2.017），且与粮食稳定性无统计学显著系数相关。此外，结果证实，沙特阿拉伯一单位太阳能消费将使粮食稳定性显著增加36.5%（在10%显著性水平下Z值为1.682）。格兰杰因果关系结果得出，太阳能与粮食供应存在双向格兰杰因果关系，但与粮食稳定性不存在。FEVD结果表明，在短期和长期内，太阳能冲击在解释粮食安全快速增长方面比风能冲击具有更持久的影响。IRF得出，粮食供应对风能的响应呈现出积极且稳定的增长。本研究为政策制定者平衡能源转型目标与粮食安全担忧提供了实际建议。未来研究应探索风能和太阳能领域的新兴技术，这些技术可以提高效率和可持续性，同时将对粮食安全的不利影响降至最低。
