In recent years, the development of eco-innovation has been recognized as one of the main drivers of reducing the non-renewable energy consumption, the importance of which is undeniable for combating climate change and promoting environmental sustainability. Research evidence shows that green innovations can change energy consumption pattern and lead to a reduction in the demand for fossil fuels by improving energy efficiency and utilizing renewable resources. Therefore, examining the effects of these innovations on energy consumption is not only necessary for developing energy management strategies, but it can also help identify the challenges and opportunities on the path to a green economy. However, this issue has not been addressed in the previous literature. Accordingly, the present study aims to investigate the asymmetric role of eco-innovation in the non-renewable energy consumption in Iran during the period 1975–2022. The findings, based on the Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (NARDL) model, show that the effect of eco-innovation (EI) in the research model is asymmetrical, such that positive changes in eco-innovation lead to a decrease, while negative changes lead to an increase in the non-renewable energy consumption (NRE). In addition, the results indicate that human capital (HC), industrialization (IND), and foreign direct investment (FDI) have a negative effect, whereas economic growth (EG), trade openness (TO), urbanization (URB), and the dummy variable to the Islamic Revolution of Iran (DU) have a positive and significant effect on the non-renewable energy consumption.