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Effective ways of reducing harmful emissions in the energy sector include, in particular, increasing the efficiency of energy conversion from non-renewable energy sources, the wider use of renewable energy sources and on the other hand, the rational use of energy by consumers. This study deals with the application of renewable energy sources (green energy), which, in addition to environmental benefits, also increase the state's independence from the import of fossil fuels. The world trend is clearly moving towards more intensive use of these clean green energies. Therefore, their higher use is included among the strategic goals of energy policy in most countries of the world, in EU countries, including Slovakia. The paper aims to examine the most important renewable energy sources producing green energy in the EU-27 member states in the period of 2010-2020. The subject of the research is the indigenous production of geothermal energy, solar thermal energy, primary solid biofuels, biogases, and renewable municipal waste. The analyzed EU countries differ in the most important renewable energy production. The countries of northern Europe are the Union leaders in producing energy from waste. Italy is a leader in the use of geothermal energy. The countries of northern Europe, including the Baltic States, are making progress in the production of solar energy. The cluster analysis resulted in the identification of countries with similar characteristics in the case of the development of domestic production of selected renewable sources in the examined period. The analysis showed the development of indicators had not changed significantly over the last decade, although some countries have moved within the established clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes the relationship between energy consumption and green GDP as increased energy consumption could cause an increase in GDP. In order to evaluate how and to what extent the increase in energy consumption affects the size and movement of the green GDP, the aim of this paper is to confirm the existence of a strong link between energy consumption and green GDP. Having a large number of papers linking energy consumption and GDP, through this paper, we want to emphasize an even greater role of green GDP in energy consumption by linking the impact of the consumption of different energy sources with the movements in green GDP. Namely, how much different energy sources affect the gap between green GDP and GDP. Within the empirical analysis, we use a panel cointegration technique to examine long-term relationships among integrated variables. The data analyzed in this model cover 36 countries for the period from 2008 to 2016. These 36 countries include the EU28 countries and potential candidates for accession in the European Union. The results of our analysis follow the theory as we found that an increase in energy consumption causes an increase in GDP, hence the green GDP. However, the second part of the analysis suggests that an increase in consumption of energy in sectors that are environmentally more damaging emphasize the gap between the GDP and green GDP, but that an increase in more environmentally cleaner energy consumption curtails that gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]