Time Series forecasting of the SP Global Clean Energy Index using a Multivariate LSTM

Abstract: Clean energy and machine learning are subjects that play significant roles in shaping our future. The current climate crisis has forced the world to take action towards more sustainable solutions. Arrangements such as the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement are causing an increased interest in renewable energy solutions. Further, the EU Taxonomy Regulation, applied in 2020, aims to scale up sustainable investments and to direct cash flows toward sustainable projects and activities. These measures create interest in investing in renewable energy alternatives and predicting future movements of stocks related to these businesses. Machine learning models have previously been used to predict time series with promising results. However, predicting time series in the form of stock price indices has, throughout previous attempts, proved to be a difficult task due to the complexity of the variables that play a role in the indices’ movements. This paper uses the machine learning algorithm long short-term memory (LSTM) to predict the S&P Global Clean Energy Index. The research question revolves around how well the LSTM model performs on this specific index and how the result is affected when past returns from correlating variables are added to the model. The researched variables are crude oil price, gold price, and interest. A model for each correlating variable was created, as well as one with all three, and one standard model which used only historical data from the index. The study found that while the model with the variable which had the strongest correlation performed best among the multivariate models, the standard model using only the target variable gave the most accurate result of any of the LSTM models.