Solar Energy and Economic Impact in Africa.

This paper studies the causal relationship between the energy solar-economic consumption and growth in Africa countries: Egypt, Morocco, and South Africa. For this reason, the annual data from 1990 to 2019 is examined using panel random effects approach. We investigate the direction of causality between economic growth and solar energy by using panel Granger causality tests. The main empirical findings reveal the acceptation of the growth hypothesis, which advances that an increase in energy consumption may enhance the economic growth, and a reduction in energy consumption may adversely affect economic growth. This result indicates that the full panel economies are energy dependent. The results indicate a unidirectional link between economic growth and energy consumption. Thus, the economic growth in African countries acts positively to an increase of the solar energy consumption. Furthermore, we note the existence of a bidirectional connection between renewable energy consumption and economic growth for Egypt.