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Facing the mounting pressures of meeting energy and environment needs and reducing its dependence for fossil fuels, China needs to make more effort to develop renewable energy. This paper attempts to use portfolio theory to optimize China's overall energy system with considering the learning curve effect of renewable energy cost and the characteristic of fossil energy cost increasing over time. It also takes into account additional factors such as environmental costs of coal consumption and various growth rates of the cumulative R&D (research and development) capacity for solar power. This research has found that the development of renewable energy in China has tremendous potential but it will not replace fossil energy in the next decades. The sensitivity analysis of this paper indicates that development of solar power is driven not only by the cumulative installed capacity but also by the cumulative R&D capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main goal of this paper is to argue for the necessity and significance of studying the distributional employment impacts of renewable and new energy development (RNE). Based on the comprehensive review of the methodology and conclusions of existing literatures, this paper builds up an extended input–output model to study RNE’s distributional employment impacts on gender and personnel structure. The case study of China׳s power sector in this paper affirmed earlier doubts that RNE development will indeed aggravate the gender inequality problem and add to the level of mismatch between the structure of labor demand and supply, causing structural unemployment problems. The quantitative analysis in this paper outlined here implies that from 2011 to 2020 the development of RNE will bring about 7 million employment gains, but only 81.8% of which can be realized due to the mismatch problem. The study of China may alert other countries to be less-optimistic about RNE’s employment impacts and reaffirm the need to carry out the distributional employment impacts analysis. This paper concludes with policy suggestions such as providing suitable training and equal promotion opportunities for women, offering courses and vocational trainings to RNE-related majors, in order to reduce the structural unemployment problem and further speed up the development of RNE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has become a net importer of natural gas as a result of rapidly increasing consumption in recent years. A production peak would exist since natural gas is an exhaustible resource. As conventional natural gas production peak approaches, the development of unconventional natural gas is attracting increasing attention. China׳s unconventional natural gas reserves are abundant, but exploration is still in its infancy stage. Thus, with the increasing quest for low-carbon development and China׳s natural gas price reform, studying the impacts of unconventional gas development on China׳s natural gas supply and price reform under different scenarios has practical significance. In this paper we predict China׳s natural gas production trends in different scenarios and forecast natural gas demand. This paper concludes that the exploitation of unconventional natural gas will greatly improve China׳s annual natural gas production, and delay the production peak year. This is important for China׳s natural gas supply security as it can decrease dependence on imported gas. Furthermore, as the cleanest fossil fuel, it will enable more time and space for renewable energy development given the many costs and controversies surrounding its development in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China faced the greatest challenge in balancing its economic growth, energy and resource security as well as environmental pollution. The energy-intensive industries, which used to be the major force driving China׳s economic growth, had seriously exhausted the countries׳ natural resources and energy, and at the same time polluted the environment because of the severe surplus of low-efficiency production capacities. As a result, the Chinese government had initiated multiple economic and administrative policies to eliminate these low-efficiency production capacities intended to improve the energy efficiency of energy-intensive industries. These policies are summarized in this paper, along with export tax rebating rate, resource tax, administrative audit and approvals, differential electric power pricing and shutting down the low-efficiency production capacities. The paper also evaluates the effects of these policies by analyzing several key indicators about the energy-intensive industries, including fixed asset investment growth rate, energy-intensity of industrial added-value, waste gas emission-intensity of industrial added-value. The VALDEX methodology is selected to examine the improving trends of energy-efficiency for energy-intensive industries. The analyzing results show that firstly the development of low-efficiency capacities tends to be more sensitive to the policies, so the policies that China had enacted really exert very important effects on improving the energy-efficiency of energy-intensive industries. However, the effects of economic policies seem more faster and obvious than the fiscal policies. Besides, the results also show that polices which are designed to reserve energy may not necessarily exert the same effects on reducing emissions. There is still large room for improving the energy efficiency of energy-intensive industries, substantial improvement still needs to be done for current policies’ system. Some suggestions for future work are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reliable energy statistics serve as the foundation and starting point for understanding the climate policies of any country. As the most comprehensive sources of energy data for China, China Energy Statistics Yearbooks (ESY), published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), underwent three major revisions since 2005. This paper analyzes how these three major revisions correspond to data on China's energy use from 1996 to 2012, and theirs impacts on CO 2 emissions, emission intensity and the share of non-fossil energy in total energy consumption, which are key indicators of China's climate policies. Some notable changes include CO 2 emissions for 2012, which increased by 594 Million tons – a figure equivalent to South Korea's annual emissions, which implies that China's emissions at peak level will be higher than previous estimation. Meanwhile, revised emission intensity data show a higher amount and lower decreasing rate, which means that China's achievements in decreasing emission intensity during 2005–2012 have been overestimated, while future difficulties for achieving the goal of 40–45% reduction will be greater. On the share of non-fossil fuel energy in China's total energy mix, the adjustments increased the indicator by 1.26%, reflecting the fact that China's effort in developing non-fossil energy had been underestimated. Discrepancies in reported scattered coal in different statistics versions are the main contributors to these changes. To further enhance the reliability of its energy statistics, and thereby its climate policies, China should remove incentives for misreporting through legal means, and make the technical system for data collection more comprehensive and accurate, with particular emphasis on scattered coal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evaluation of balanced regional development should consider not only the economic and ecological benefits but also regional differences. A nongrouped Gini index is constructed based on a continuous distribution function to evaluate the regionally balanced development of the economy and the environment, and the applicability of the method is analyzed given the data characteristics. Combining the difference in the regional economic base and ecological carrying capacity, a multigroup overall Gini index (MGO-Gini) with regional spatial heterogeneity is further developed, along with its decomposition structure. This work evaluates and analyses the regional balance in China’s development with regard to regional industrial output, energy consumption and pollution emissions from 2000 to 2015 using both the nongrouped and the MGO-Gini. The results show that ①the Gini index constructed in this paper can be well adapted to fat-tailed data, which is a typical feature of China’s regional economic and ecological benefits data. ②The regionally balanced development of China does not obviously promote industrial output, whereas the regional balance of energy consumption shows the same upward trend when evaluated with both the nongrouped and the MGO-Gini from 2000 to 2015. In recent years, after a period of improvement, the regional balance of pollution emissions has experienced a downward trend. There is disparity in “cleaner production efficiency” between regions of China as well as an upward trend in this disparity in recent years. ③China’s interregional balance has been enhanced in terms of energy consumption and pollution emissions considering regional spatial heterogeneity, whereas the balance of economic output has been further reduced. ④The balance in regional energy consumption plays a supporting role in balanced development among regions. The imbalance within developed areas is the main source of regional economic output and energy consumption imbalances, and the imbalance in developing areas is the main source of the regional pollution imbalance in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An improvement in industrial carbon emission efficiency is crucial for achieving both reductions in carbon emissions and sustainable economic growth. In this paper, we use an improved non-radial directional distance function (NDDF) to construct a new meta-frontier total-factor carbon emission efficiency index ( TCEI ) with which we estimate the meta-frontier TCEI of China's 30 provincial industrial sectors in 2005–2015 and analyze their dynamic evolution. The results show that compared to traditional NDDF, the improved NDDF has more advantages in measuring both carbon emission efficiency and the technology gap ratio. For the study period, China's industrial meta-frontier TCEI is low, indicating that the industrial TCEI of many provinces still has much room for improvement. The meta-frontier TCEI has significant inter-group heterogeneity, with Eastern China having the largest carbon emission efficiency, followed by Central China, and Western China having the lowest. China's industrial meta-frontier TCEI increased significantly during the study period with technical progress playing a major role in promoting it. Over time, however, the meta-frontier TCEI growth rate decreased significantly as the deterioration in technological efficiency and the expansion of the technology gap have jointly inhibited the growth of carbon emissions efficiency. Carbon emission performance in various regions over different periods exhibit differing characteristics, that is, the carbon emission performance has significant spatial heterogeneity and period heterogeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a global meta-frontier approach, this paper analyzes energy efficiency and the savings potential in China's transportation sector from 2006 to 2014 from the perspectives of technological progress, technology gaps, and management efficiency. The results show that energy efficiency in China's transportation sector first decreased from 2006 to 2010, mainly due to a decline in management efficiency and an expansion of the regional technology gap. The energy efficiency then increased from 2011 to 2014 when management efficiency and the regional technology gap stabilized. The energy efficiency in China's transportation sector shows spatial differences, suggesting that the focus of future work on China's provincial transportation sectors should be quite varied. Most provinces in eastern China should commit to upgrading their management efficiency, while most provinces in central and western China should focus on both upgrading their management efficiency and narrowing the regional technology gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid development of agriculture mechanization and the agro–industry in China (considered as a large agricultural country) has led to a substantial increase in energy consumption and CO 2 emissions. Majority of existing studies usually explore the driving forces of the sector's CO 2 emissions using the averaging method. However, data distribution of economic variables is often non–normal, with the tail having hidden important information. According to the average annual CO 2 emissions, this paper divides China's 30 provinces into six quantile grades, and uses the quantile regression method to investigate the driving forces of CO 2 emissions under high, medium, and low emission levels. The results show that the effects of economic growth on CO 2 emissions in the upper 90th and 75th–90th quantile provinces are higher than in the 50th–75th, 25th–50th, 10th–25th and lower 10th quantile provinces due to the differences in fixed–asset investment and agricultural processing. The impact of energy efficiency in the upper 90th, 75th–90th, and 50th–75th quantile provinces are stronger than those in the 25th–50th, 10th–25th, and lower 10th quantile provinces because of the huge difference in R&D funding and R&D personnel investments. The effect of urbanization in the higher 90th quantile provinces is higher than in the other quantile provinces, owing to the differences in the level of agricultural mechanization and human capital accumulation. Similarly, financial capacity has the largest impact on CO 2 emissions in the upper 90th quantile provinces in all quantile provinces. However, the impact of industrialization in the upper 90th quantile provinces is lower than in other quantile provinces. Thus, the heterogeneous effects of the driving forces should be taken into consideration when discussing CO 2 emissions reduction in China's agriculture sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Subway construction in China has experienced a surge during the past decade. Though subway is often viewed as a clean commute mode, the construction of its stations and tunnel sections requires large quantities of energy consumption, generating multiple pollutants, among which the Green-house gas (GHG) emissions would be a major issue in the context of a worldwide plea for carbon reduction, and it has to be quantified for the interest of a comprehensive assessment with regard to the GHG emissions of subway system. This paper proposed a GHG emissions quantification model for the construction of the subway stations based on a quota. A quota-based GHG emissions quantification model is able to estimate GHG emissions during the planning stage of subway projects, providing designers with the environmental consciousness on their design choices, as well as a reference for reduction potential of GHG emissions within or among schemes. Specifically, GHG emissions in the construction of subway stations are attributed to the contribution of each sub-project, a database for the GHG emissions of those sub projects is established through their construction quota. Case study for an open-excavation station shows 69% of the GHG emissions come from the construction of main structures. In terms of emission sources, embodied emissions account for 90.72% of the totality, of which concrete and steel components are the two major contributors. Besides, parameter on the buried depth of top slab shows that GHG emissions from each sub-projects increase with buried depth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China consumes more energy and emits more carbon dioxide than any other country. The building sector accounts for nearly 1/3 of the total national energy consumption in China; thus, it is critical to find a solution for improving buildings’ energy efficiency. Under the market-oriented mechanism, constrained by the energy performance contracting (EPC) mode, energy service companies (ESCOs) play an important role in improving energy efficiency for high-energy-consumption industries, including the building sector. The aim of this study is to determine the strategy for boosting the building ESCO industry. By conducting a strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat (SWOT) analysis, this paper presented the status of the building ESCO industry in China and proposed alternative strategies. By utilizing a conventional multi-criteria decision-making method, namely, the Analytic Network Process (ANP), this study provides a quantitative basis to analytically determine the ranking of the factors in SWOT analysis and select the best strategy to promote the development of the building ESCO industry. The results showed that the ANP-SWOT is a viable and highly capable methodology that provides invaluable insights for strategic management decisions in the building ESCO industry, and a set of strategies for promoting ESCO development in the building sector were proposed based on this approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water shortage can constrain energy development and use, and climate change partially caused by energy consumption can profoundly affect the quantity and distribution of water resources worldwide. The chronic water shortage in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region of China is likely to worsen under the impact of global climate change. The coal-dominated electricity sector will continuously have a high water demand. This reality will intensify the dilemma between water supply and power generation. This paper presents an adaptability analysis of the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region in 2013–2030 based on the current situation. Water evaluation and planning and long-range energy alternative planning systems are used to simulate changes in water and energy systems, respectively, and the impacts on the electricity sector under two climate scenarios and three development scenarios. On this basis, this study explores the potential of power structure adjustment and technological advancement in easing baseline water stress and promoting sustainable development in the region. Findings show that the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region is under high water stress, which will be aggravated under global climate change. In representative concentration pathway (RCP) 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios, the baseline water stress of the region in 2017–2030 averages 259% and 494%, and the annual unmet water demand reaches 15.3 and 21.1 billion m 3 , respectively. In the renewable energy and advanced technology scenarios, the regional water savings are expected to reach 200–250 million m 3 by 2030. The unmet water demand of power generation can be alleviated to some extent, but the water shortage trend cannot be reversed. Therefore, the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region should develop an overall plan and layout of energy and water resources and adopt a combination of policy instruments to support the expansion of renewable energy or promote advanced power generation technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • An energy-related PM 2.5 footprint inventory framework for households is constructed. • PM 2.5 footprint is decreasing from urban households (high income) to rural households (low income). • Sectors related to food, residence and health care are the main contributors of PM 2.5 footprint. Abstract Particulate matter 2.5 (PM 2.5 ) as a major hazardous constituent is strongly associated with household energy consumption. In this paper, we investigate the PM 2.5 footprint of household energy consumption in Beijing based on input–output analysis. An inventory of primary and secondary household energy consumption is developed to quantify the direct PM 2.5 emissions. The household PM 2.5 footprint is then traced through goods or services that ultimately consumed by households to unveil the indirect PM 2.5 emissions triggered by economic activities. PM 2.5 fingerprint is also proposed to describe the characteristic of household PM 2.5 footprint. Results show that PM 2.5 footprint of Beijing households in 2010 is 7831.36 kt, of which 92.61% is contributed by urban households. The source of direct PM 2.5 emissions in urban area is diversified, which is composed of coal (42.07%), heat and electricity (32.83%), gasoline (21.29%), natural gas (3.04%) and liquefied petroleum gas (0.77%), while in rural area, coal (98.09%) plays a dominant role. The indirect PM 2.5 accounts for 99.96% of the total footprint in urban area, about one third of which is contributed by sectors of “Food Processing and Production”, “Healthcare and Social Security”, and “Farming, Forestry, Animal Husbandry and Fishery”. The disparity between urban and rural households PM 2.5 footprints is further evaluated with income levels. The PM 2.5 footprint from living expenditures of urban households is found to be nearly twice as much as that of rural households. Such inventory of PM 2.5 footprint and examination of drivers for PM 2.5 emissions may be essential for urban pollution mitigation policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • The input–output model and ecological network analysis (ENA) are integrated. • The control and dependence conditions of economic sectors in China are analyzed. • The key regions and sectors for carbon mitigation of China are identified. Abstract In this paper, multi-regional input–output analysis (MRIO) and ecological network analysis (ENA) are combined to assess carbon flows within China and identify key regions and sectors in the context of spatial heterogeneity for effective carbon mitigation. An interregional carbon network model is established by articulating the directions and magnitudes of carbon flows based on MRIO. ENA is then used to unveil indirect carbon flows and mutual relationships among regions. The results show that the northwest is the largest controller for most regions in China. Most carbon emissions in the rest of China are induced by the east’s final demand and substantial consumption. In addition, at sectoral level, the control and dependence abilities vary by region in China. This study provides an integrated framework to investigate interregional carbon emission structure, identify efficient pathways for coordinated emission mitigation, and reduce global carbon inequality across regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of urbanization has had a dramatic impact on the ecological environment in China. In this paper, we first measure the urban eco-efficiency of 281 prefecture-level cities in China during 2006–2013 using the super-efficiency data envelopment analysis (SEDEA) model. We then propose a new comprehensive index system to assess urbanization. Finally, we quantitatively explore the relationship between urbanization and urban eco-efficiency based on a spatial econometric analysis. The results showed that China's average urban eco-efficiency and comprehensive level of urbanization of 281 prefecture-level cities had shown increase during 2006–2013. However, distinct spatial disparities exist among different cities. China's urbanization has significant characteristics of spatial agglomeration and spatial convergence during 2006–2013, with a high-to-low spatial distribution from eastern China to western China. Spatial effects play an important role in the changes of urban eco-efficiency in China through spatial spillover effects and regional replication and competition. Evidence from spatial econometric analysis reveals that an N-shaped relationship exists between urbanization and urban eco-efficiency, indicating that with the improvement of urbanization, urban eco-efficiency first increases, then declines and then increases again. The improvement of the level of technology and the formulation of effective environmental policies will promote the increase in urban eco-efficiency. The results provide significant references for urban ecological management and sustainable urban transformation in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the incentives for pursuing a low-carbon electricity sector that are embedded in China's regulatory and policy framework. To do so, we first describe the industry structure and the regulatory framework. Second, we explicitly review the policies that were developed to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy. These policies range from the introduction of legal requirements to undertake particular actions to pricing mechanism and financial incentives. Based on this, we tease out the challenges faced by a sector governed by a myriad of complex arrangements, different institutions and agents who face different and often conflicting incentives for pursuing environmental and energy efficiency objectives. Finally, we provide suggestions to scientifically set up low-carbon policies and to achieve the expected goals with minimum social cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

this paper applies an epsilon-based measure DEA approach to evaluate the regional ecological energy efficiency for 30 regions in China and its three major areas for the period 2007–2015. Based on this, the temporal and spatial disparities of China's regional ecological energy efficiency are investigated. To explore the sources of China's regional ecological energy inefficiency, the overall ecological energy inefficiency is decomposed into several input-specific inefficiencies. And then, the energy saving and pollution abatement potentials of each Chinese region is calculated using the differences between the target values and the actual values of energy consumption and pollution emissions. The empirical results show that China's ecological energy efficiency is relatively low and regional differences are significant for the period 2007–2015. It can be demonstrated that the inefficiency to abate pollution is the main contributor to China's regional ecological energy inefficiency. By calculating the potentials of energy saving and pollution abatement, it can be found that the east area has the lowest potential, followed by the central area, with the west area having the highest potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the climate change impact on cooling energy consumption of office buildings in four major architectural climate zones in China. The results show that there are apparent differences in the responses of monthly or yearly cooling loads to climatic change in different climates. Dominant factors affecting monthly cooling loads change from dry bulb temperature (DBT) to wet bulb temperature (WBT) with the climate zones changing from severe cold to hot. The yearly cooling load was mainly afftectd by DBT in severe cold climate, whereas the WBT had the dominant effect in the other climates. With the continuous warming climate, the yearly cooling load did not rise significantly for any climate zone except for severe cold climate zone where cooling load had a significant increase ( p  < 0.01). More importantly, the cooling load showed a weak decrease in Guangzhou. These results suggest that different measurements for buildings cooling energy conservation should be made in different climate zones. The humidity effect should be fully considered to improve buildings energy efficiency, especially in the hot climate zones. The continuous increase of temperature in the future does not necessarily increase cooling loads of buildings in the cold, hot summer & cold winter and hot summer & warm winter climate zones, and change trendency of humidity in the future need to be considered to predict cooling energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to resolve the contradiction between the lack of building energy data and the need of more detailed information about energy performance, this paper presents a simplified building energy performance diagnosis method which can assess the energy performance from building level to system level with only limited information. Based on multiple-parameter regression between the whole building energy bills and outdoor weather data, the proposed diagnosis method uses the regression coefficients to identify the energy use of main systems (i.e., lighting-plug system and cooling/heating system), as well as other detailed information about physical properties of the building and cooling/heating system (i.e., cooling or heating load, the operation of cooling/heating system and the efficiency of cooling/heating system). One case study was conducted in an office building in China to test the application of this diagnosis method. In addition, the regression result of simulated energy consumption served as benchmark data to further diagnose the performance gap between the operation stage and the design stage and help locate the poor performance and key points of energy-saving. Finally, all diagnosis results have been verified by the performance data from advanced energy consumption monitoring system together with field surveys and measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-Carbon Consumption Behavior (HCCB) of urban residents is one of the main obstacles to the goals of low carbon development in China with the rapid development of the national economy. Among all the uptrend influences, the one caused by conspicuous consumption is worth more attention. In this paper, a structural equation model was applied to analyze the impact path of conspicuous consumption motivation on HCCB. Multiple group analysis was then used to test the moderating effect of individual face conscious and demographics on the impact. Our data originated from a social study of Xuzhou, Jiangsu province, China (n = 351). The results indicated four leading aspects. First, the raising habitual HCCB is mainly affected by three points, materialistic hedonism, interpersonal mediation and social status demonstration, and the influence is reduced in successively. While communication of belonging to/dissociation from a group and ostentation have little effect on habitual HCCB. The second, purchased HCCB of residents is mainly impacted positively by materialistic hedonism, and other factors have weak influence on it. The third, face consciousness has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between residents’ conspicuous consumption motivation and HCCB. People with strong face consciousness are more affected by the social status demonstration and interpersonal mediation; those with weak face consciousness are only driven by material hedonism. The last, gender, marital status, age, education level, and household monthly disposable income have significant moderating effects on the relationship. Among them, the HCCB from males, young people, married persons, highly educated people, and higher income groups is more affected by materialistic hedonism, interpersonal mediation, and social status demonstration, while from females with lower education, and lower income groups is more likely to be driven by social status demonstration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With its continuing socio-economic development, China faces the challenge of meeting the growing energy demand. Industrial parks with combined cooling, heating, and power (CCHP) achieve better comprehensive economic and environmental benefits due to energy cascade utilization. A new enterprise entering an industrial park with CCHP needs to select a reasonable cold and heat source scheme (CHSS). Therefore, this paper presents a method for new enterprises to select an appropriate CHSS. This method is based on comprehensive economic and environmental benefit, using minimal annual average cost in operation optimization mode as a quantitative indicator, and the calculation process uses the improved differential evolution algorithm using the MATLAB software. Finally, a cloud computing center of an industrial park with CCHP in Chongqing is used as a case study to assess the method. Results show that the scheme of lithium bromide absorption refrigerator driven with steam can be accepted by the cloud computing center only steam price below 112.6yuan/t, which can promote energy cascade utilization in the industrial park. This method assists new enterprises entering the industrial park in selecting their energy system scheme. In addition, the method can assist energy supply enterprises to determine energy trade prices and also expand their user base. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the past three decades, the notion of sustainable cities has become central in planning and managing urban areas in the world and the large-scale city formation has been formed in big cities. As a result of economic growth and urban transformation, Shanghai, a major Chinese international metropolis, faces ongoing issues with resource waste and low energy utilization. Therefore, this paper aims to consider the availability of water for energy production from a consumption-based perspective and estimate the water footprint of the energy supply using a regional input-output analysis approach for Shanghai. As a result, we conclude that the water footprint of the energy supply of Shanghai is about 1.28 billion m 3 in 2007, with 46.1% of water used for electricity and heat supply. The total water withdrawal by the energy sector is about 2.35 billion m 3 and additional water withdrawal needed is about 35% of the total water withdrawals by the energy sector in Shanghai. Furthermore, an energy self-sufficiency scenario was developed, and the scenario analysis reveals that 55% more water would be required to ensure a self-sufficient energy sector. To guarantee future regional energy security, it is important to manage water resources effectively by allocating water resources among sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decades, solar heat for industrial processes (SHIP) have been rapidly developed and applied, and also getting more and more attention all over the world. China is the largest energy consumer with industry accounting for almost 70% of its total energy consumption. Low- and medium-temperature heat takes up 45% of process heat, covering 50–70% of industrial energy consumption, which provides a favorable condition for solar application in industrial processes. China has built developed some demonstration projects to make industrial processes well integrated with solar heating systems. This paper briefly summarizes the status of China's energy consumption, integration of SHIP, as well as available matching solar technologies. Ten typical industrial sectors are selected to specifically describe their potential of SHIP. Moreover, 26 SHIP cases covering the selected 10 sectors are presented by field researches, with capacity of energy saving and emission reduction previously investigated according to their own proportion of SHIP. The potential of SHIP in the 10 sectors are further predicted by optimistically and conservatively making their proportion in SHIP 5.5% and 2% respectively during the period of 2016–2020. The results show that at least 39.40 million tons of coal equivalent and 98.22 million tons of CO 2 emission is expected to be reduced in 2020 in China's all industrial sectors although solar can meet different proportions of heat demand in different industrial sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bottlenecks in developing high-efficiency ultra-super critical (USC) coal power technology are analyzed within the context of the growing pressure on the coal power industry to reduce carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions. To meet these demands, further improving the annual average operating efficiency of coal power is essential. A cross-compound double reheat unit design characterized by an elevated and conventional turbine layout is proposed in this paper. This new design can greatly shorten the length of expensive high-temperature piping required, significantly cut piping costs as well as reducing pressure drops and heat losses, resulting in a much higher efficiency and performance-price ratio than conventional double reheat design. The engineering study demonstrates the feasibility and advantages of this design. Now this new design is being implemented on Pingshan Phase II Project as a demonstration coal power unit in China. Despite the new turbine arrangement, Pingshan Phase II Project also adopts a series of energy saving, environmental protection, efficiency preservation and safety technologies, of which some have already gained success in Shanghai Waigaoqiao No. 3 Power Plant. Based on the new design and further optimization, the unit net efficiency of Pingshan Phase II is expected to achieve 49.8% under rated conditions on a lower heating value (LHV) basis. Combined with a series of innovative technologies that can keep the efficiency from decreasing under operational conditions, the annual average net efficiency can achieve 48.8% on LHV basis. This efficiency level is high enough to meet the strict CO 2 emission standard proposed by United States Environment Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) based on the Pittsburgh #8 bituminous coal, showing significant potential for reducing CO 2 emissions. A series of low-energy-consumption and even energy-saving pollutants removal technologies are also be applied on this project to harmonize high efficiency and low emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy productivity is a key indicator to evaluate energy efficiency. However, few researchers focus on China’s energy productivity at the city level or its spatial patterns. The aim of this paper is to investigate the determinants and spatial character of changes to China’s energy productivity at the city level. The change in energy productivity is decomposed using a distance function approach, and its spatial character is identified through exploratory spatial data analysis, based on data from 248 cities between 2010 and 2014. The study revealed that China’s overall energy productivity exhibited a downward trend caused primarily by the effects of technological and technical efficiency changes at the city level. Additionally, significant spatial autocorrelation existed in energy productivity, although most cities did not show significant spatial clustering. Based on the above results, we provide relevant suggestions for policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study is to trace and quantify the sources of rebound effect for different energy sources in China. This paper decomposes the economy-wide rebound effect into 135 production sector-level rebound effects and five final demand components. The sector-level rebound is further decomposed into output effect and substitution effect. A two-stage decomposition method and a static computable general equilibrium model are developed to achieve this. Five types of energy-specific efficiency improvements are introduced, respectively, in all the production sectors. Results show that improving efficiency of using coal leads to the smallest macro-level rebound. For rebound decomposition, four findings are generalized. First, final consumption shows larger impact on the rebound of secondary energy sources than on primary energy sources. Second, production sectors that are big user of the efficiency-exposed energy source are expected to be key rebound contributor. Third, energy-producing sectors make negative rebound contribution. Results also show that, substitution effect is the predominant mechanism that triggers sector-level rebound. Policy implications are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To achieve green development, ample environmental subsidies have been invested into many energy-intensive firms (such as thermal power firms) in China. Investigations of the effects of this kind of subsidy can help to provide specific and important implications for ongoing regulations. Unlike previous studies on the national, regional or sectoral level, this paper measures green efficiency and its compositions of thermal power firms and studies the impact of environmental subsidies on green efficiency by using the classical Slacks-based Measure and Tobit model. The results show that the average green efficiency ranges from 0.509 to 0.663 during 2010–2015, which is much lower than the general efficiency. The green scale efficiency is the main reason for the low green efficiency, thus indicating large room for improvement. Environmental subsidies negatively affect green efficiency and its decompositions from 2010 to 2013. The negative effect becomes weak and insignificant in 2014, and the environmental subsidies start to significantly promote green efficiency and its decompositions in 2015. According to our findings, some implications relating to improving green scale efficiency, increasing the intensity of environmental subsidies to firms and strengthening their supervision are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the basis of the fact that China is setting up world's largest electricity network with the extra high voltage (EHV) and ultra high voltage (UHV) as their backbones, creating the foundation for large-scale accession of clean power which may deeply affect regional energy efficiency across the country, this paper attempts to empirically study the joint effects of clean power accessing to power grids on regional total-factor energy efficiency. To complete this job, we first measured the total-factor energy efficiencies of 29 provinces in China over the period 1991–2013, based on one of the data envelopment analysis methods, then, the static panel model considering panel fixed effect with instrument variable (FE-IV), dynamic panel model of system generalized method of moments (SYS-GMM) and panel smooth transition regression (PSTR) were employed, respectively, to investigate separate and joint effect of clean power and its grid-connection with EHV and UHV electricity network. The results show that the joint effect of clean power accessing to EHV and UHV power grid is either not significant or even negative although clean power itself separately promote regional energy efficiency. Thus, while the investment in grid infrastructure continues to increase, the grid-connection mechanism of clean power needs to be optimized therewith. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a methodology to examine the effect of technological learning on industrial air pollutants intensity in China. It is based upon the theory of learning curves and environmental learning curves. In this way it is possible to estimate the effect of technological learning on industrial air pollutants intensity in two steps. First, we build a multi-factor environmental learning curve model to investigate the relationship between technological learning and industrial air pollutants intensity. At the second stage of the analysis, we assess whether and how different types of technological learning can reduce industrial air pollutants intensity based on a mediating effect model. The results show that there is a causal relationship between technological learning and industrial air pollutants intensity. Moreover, different types of technological learning have the same influence way on industrial air pollutants intensity: learning-by-doing can significantly reduce industrial air pollutants intensity through energy efficiency; and the same is true with learning-by-researching and learning-by-importing. In addition, different types of technological learning have different influence degree on industrial air pollutants intensity: learning-by-doing is the leading contributor to the reduction in industrial air pollutants intensity, while the contribution of learning-by-researching is the smallest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, the conventional Fushun-type retorting process is the most main way of shale oil production in China. However, it has many disadvantages, such as low resource utilization efficiency and severe environmental pollution inevitably. In this paper, the framework of exergetic life cycle assessment (ELCA) is applied to the shale oil production process, and the indicator of resource utilization efficiency ( γ ) and the indicator of environmental sustainability ( ζ ) were defined to evaluate the performance of the resource utilization efficiency and environmental sustainability. The results indicate that the Aspen Plus simulation results are reasonably consistent with industrial data. The yield of shale oil is 4.52 kg/s by the pyrolysis of 100 kg/s oil shale. The framework of ELCA is applicable for the Fushun-type shale oil production process. During the whole life cycle, the cumulative exergy consumption (CExC) and the Abatement exergy (AbatEx) of pollutants (per kg shale oil produced) are 225.65 MJ and 61.69 MJ, respectively. The retorting stage has the lowest exergy efficiency, 62.49%, followed by the semi-coke gasification stage 63.15%. The γ and ζ values in shale oil production stage are very poor, 42.64% and 32.64%, respectively. When the retorting temperature is set to 500 °C and the saturation of feeding air is controlled to 80 °C, the γ and ζ values of the whole life cycle achieve the greatest potential, 35.85% and 28.05%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to shortage of conventional resources, tight/shale oil/gas reservoirs have become increasingly important in balancing the energy consumption in China. As the most important shale reservoirs in China, marine Silurian shales in the Sichuan Basin have received intensive investigation during recent years in the area of pore structure characterization and reserve assessment. However, no work has been conducted to compare the China shale plays with other mature shale plays in the North America using multiple experimental methods based on the mineralogy analysis and organic geochemistry. In this paper, pore structure, formation porosity, total organic carbon (TOC), thermal maturity, and mineralogy of 36 samples in Longmaxi shale and 7 samples in Qiongzhusi shale have been investigated using multiple experimental methods. FIB-SEM imaging results show that Longmaxi shale gas reservoir include primary pores, residual intergranular pores, dissolution pores, and intergranular pores. The majority of the pores are distributed in residual intergranular pores, secondary dissolution pores, and intercrystalline pores, but less in primary intergranular pores. X-ray diffraction analysis shows that the clay minerals of Longmaxi shale reservoir mainly consist of illite and kaolinite, then followed by chlorite. The content of kaolinite is from 7.2% to 16.87%, and the average is 12.21%. The content of illite is from 8.03% to 26.8%, with the average of 16.1%. TOC tests show that most of the samples have their TOC more than 0.5%, which means Longmaxi formation has a potential to produce shale gas. Clay minerals mainly include quartz, K-feldspar, calcite, dolomite, anorthose, and pyrite. The quartz has the highest content value, followed by calcite, which are 29% and 22% average respectively. The content of pyrite and anorthose are less than 10%. The average content of brittle minerals of Longmaxi formation samples is 66% (>50%), which is suitable for hydraulic fracturing. Thermal maturity tests show that Vitrinite reflectance of each sample is more than 2.0%, which indicates that it is high enough to generate shale gas in the formation. Comparing with other mature shale plays, the Longmaxi and Qiongzhusi shale plays have lower porosity and lower TOC than that of the U.S. shale plays, and the quartz content and thermal maturity are similar. The Qiongzhusi shale and Longmaxi shale are over-mature (Ro>2.5%) compared with U.S. shale plays. The results of this study will contribute to the formation characteristics understanding and reserve assessment of China shale plays. Also, it will facilitate the development of suitable and efficient production plan for China shale plays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposed a hybrid Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) model that decomposes the change of total energy consumption (TEC) in the building sector to three different dimensions: 1) key influencing effects that include area effect, structure effect, population intensity, value intensity, and energy intensity; 2) three phases that include material production, construction, and operation; and 3) geographically distributed regions. Then, the model was validated in China's building sector based on the data collected from 30 provinces during 2007–2015. The key findings show that: (1) the increased final energy consumption in the building industry accounted for 53.3% of that in China. (2) Building material production contributed the most (69.2%) to the energy changes, followed by building operation (29.6%) and construction (1.2%). (3) The change of TEC was attributed the most to the area effect (90.4%) and the energy intensity effect (42.4%). (4) Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Hubei, Hebei, Fujian and Shandong contributed the most (47%) to the increase of China's building energy use. These findings provide an insightful understanding of the building energy changes and also a quantifiable justification for making building-specific energy policies, which are discussed at the end of the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The surge in energy consumption and CO 2 (carbon dioxide) emissions is exacerbating global warming. The Chinese government has promised to reduce CO 2 emission by 60%–65% per unit of GDP over the 2005 level by around 2030. Analyzing the factors influencing CO 2 emissions is one of the key aspects involved in effectively reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In this paper, we add climatic factors based on socio-economic factors, and adopt the extended STIRPAT model to investigate the mechanism driving emissions by the co-action of natural and socio-economic factors. The results show that the 1995–2014 emissions in China's Zhejiang province had an upward trend with growth rates varying between intermediate periods. The order of the factors' elasticity coefficients is urbanization rate (0.181) > GDP per capita (0.180) > population (0.177) > energy intensity (0.170) > trade openness (0.170) > cooling degree days (0.127) > mean temperature anomaly (0.116). Economic development and urbanization were the main factors promoting CO 2 emissions in 1996–1999, while economic development and foreign trade were the main factors in 2000–2014. Policy makers should pay more attention to keeping a healthy pace of economic development, introducing more low energy consumption and low pollution enterprises and encouraging technological innovation. Improving the quality of urbanization, guiding a sustainable lifestyle, adjusting the structure of foreign trade and curbing energy intensity are also expected to reduce emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inter-provincial inequality of per capita CO 2 emissions in China's electricity sector means that their responsibilities for CO 2 emission reduction are different. Considering the spatial separation of CO 2 emissions in power production and consumption, with respect to the large scale inter-provincial electricity trade in China, this paper innovatively investigates the sub-national inequality and polarization degree of per capita CO 2 emissions in China's electric power sector from the perspectives of both production and consumption. The overall tendencies of the sub-national polarization degrees of per capita CO 2 emissions embodied in the both electric power consumption and production in China show an increasing trend. The results indicate that the polarization distribution of per capita CO 2 emissions is still one of the important factors leading to difficulties in achieving the new reduction arrangements. The evolution of the bi-polarization analysis shows that the grouping results of per capita CO 2 emissions are different from production and consumption perspectives, as well as the high- and low-emission groups have significantly different characteristics. The inequality and polarization degree of per capita CO 2 emissions in China's electric power sector have changed as the CO 2 emissions embodied in the electricity trade had been taken into account. One-Size-Fits-All Strategies are unlikely to be successful in advancing the provincial cooperation on CO 2 emissions reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, the iron and steel industry (ISI) accounts for more than 16% of China's total energy consumption. Improving energy efficiency (EE) and promoting energy savings in this industry have vital significance for China's further sustainable development. Using provincial panel data from 2000 to 2014 and meta-frontier data envelopment analysis (DEA), this paper investigates EE and the energy-saving potential (EP) of China's ISI by considering regional technology heterogeneities. The results show that (1) from 2001 to 2014, EE in China's ISI achieved significant improvement. Technological progress is the most powerful driving factor, while the declines in scale efficiency and pure technical efficiency are two obstructive factors; (2) the sources of energy inefficiency (EI) show distinct spatial difference characteristics. EI in the eastern region mainly stems from scale inefficiency and pure technical inefficiency, while that in the central and western regions stems from three aspects of scale inefficiency, pure technical inefficiency, and technology gap; and (3) there is considerable EP in China's ISI, which represents nearly 80% of ISI's current total energy consumption. Because the sources of EP vary across regions, the focus of future work for China's regional ISI should also vary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Possession of motor vehicles in China has been rising fast, along with continuous economic growth, social development and improvements in living standards, causing severe energy and environmental stress. To relieve the stress, China is promoting electric vehicles as good alternatives to conventional vehicles. By 2020, the accumulated production and sales of electric vehicles are expected to reach five million. Large-scale connection of electric vehicles to the power grid would inevitably bring challenges to the power sector. In this paper, an electric vehicle and multi-region load-dispatch grid-structure-based (EVMLG) mathematical model is presented, aiming to investigate the interaction between electric vehicles and the power sector. Impacts of charging behaviors are carefully considered. Through case studies, we conclude that (1) the development of electric vehicles will influence regional generation portfolio and operation pattern of the power sector, and increase the utilization of renewables, (2) guided charging can adapt to the power sector, and lead to better economic and environmental benefits, (3) electric vehicles are suitable to be deployed in resource-rich regions, and (4) the development potential of electric vehicles in China is huge from the viewpoint of power supply capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present paper, life cycle analysis of coal-based synthetic natural gas (SNG) is performed for heat supply and electricity generation in China with a full consideration of energy efficiency, environmental pollutions and greenhouse gas emissions. Several different technical routes of SNG are studied in detail and the emissions of SO 2 , NO x , CO 2 and energy efficiency are all calculated. For comparisons, technical routes of ultra supercritical and coal-fired power generations are also analyzed together with a direct use of coal for heat supply. Our results show that the cogeneration of heat and electricity is a suitable technical route for SNG utilization. Comparing with ultra-supercritical and coal-fired power generations, technical routes based on SNG could significantly reduce the emissions of pollutants (especially for heat supply) with an acceptable level of the energy efficiency. After synthesis of SNG, our life cycle analysis suggests that SNG should be transported to the energy demand center for further power generation locally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After China launched its “Belt and Road” (BR) initiative, the international community became concerned that it may worsen the environmental performance of the BR countries. Due to a lack of data for empirical testing, this paper addresses this concern through an indirect method and draws the implications of the potential impacts of China’s BR initiative. This method empirically examines the effects of trade integration and regional cooperation, two major functions of the BR initiative, on energy efficiency (EE) convergence, a concept that describes the catching up process of EE across countries. A sample of 89 countries was selected to analyse the process of EE convergence from 2000 to 2014. The results indicate that although the gaps in EE among countries around the world become larger after 2010, regional cooperation may lead to a convergence process. It also finds that trade integration has a positive influence on convergence across the countries, especially among middle- and low-income countries. The results suggest that the BR initiative, through its roles in trade integration and regional cooperation, may promote EE convergence among countries. This is a desirable environmental outcome. This research also provides policy implications for both China and the other BR countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As for the academics and policymakers, more attention has been given to the issue on how to drive green development of the manufacturing through regulations and innovations. We construct the extended Crépon-Duguet-Mairesse (CDM) model and employ the panel data of Chinese manufacturing industries during 2003–2014 to examine the effects of environmental regulation on industrial innovation and green development. The findings reveal that (1) in the long term, environmental regulation has crowded out R&D investment. (2) Environmental regulation has inhibited patent outputs so that the “weak” version of Porter hypothesis is not underpinned. (3) In the short term, environmental regulation has promoted the improvements of labor productivity, energy efficiency and environmental efficiency in the manufacturing industry excluding green total factor productivity (GTFP), whereas in the long term, environmental regulation only has increased energy efficiency while it has obstructed labor productivity, which provides no support for the “strong” version of Porter hypothesis. (4) Different innovation outputs have distinct influences on labor productivity, energy efficiency, environmental efficiency and GTFP. Finally, this paper provides pertinent policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's energy conservation has received extensive attention. As the most important sector of the economy, the manufacturing industry plays a vital role in China's energy issues. Conserving energy in China's manufacturing industry (CMI) is of great significance for both China and the world. In this paper, the co-integration method is applied to test the long-term equilibrium relationship among energy consumption and three explanatory variables during the period 1980–2013. Furthermore, we use scenarios analysis method to forecast the energy demand of CMI. The results show that if the government does not properly manage the economy, the energy demand of CMI will reach 2558.97 Mtce in 2020 and 2594.18 Mtce in 2030. On the contrary, if the government attaches importance to energy conservation and takes necessary actions, energy demand in the industry will reduce to 1113.79 Mtce by 2030, which implies a large energy conservation potential for CMI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eco-efficiency is of great significance in facilitating a region’s sustainable development. However, there are some inconsistencies among the concepts and also relationships of eco-efficiency and its relevant efficiencies in recent studies. This paper integrates eco-efficiency and three related-efficiencies (economic efficiency, energy efficiency, and environmental efficiencies) into a total-factor analysis framework, regarding them as composite eco-efficiency indicators. Employing a new data envelopment analysis approach, named Meta-US-SBM, which considers meta-frontier, undesirable outputs, super efficiency, and slacks simultaneously, the measure system of these four efficiencies is established. An empirical study is conducted using Chinese provincial data from 2001 to 2014. Results indicate that, overall, the regional economic efficiency is better than other related efficiency indicators. Furthermore, different provinces are adopting different development modes, as denoted by significant heterogeneity among eco-efficiency indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the optimization scheme of carbon trading in China based on a novel energy-saving and emission-reduction (ESER) system with carbon price constraints. With the aid of nonlinear dynamics theory, the dynamics behavior of the novel system is discussed. Genetic algorithm and back propagation neural network is used to identify the quantitative coefficients according to the statistical data of the second period in European Union (EU). Taking the actual situation in EU for instance, the variables which are sensitive to carbon trading are detailedly researched. Enlightened by the EU’s experience, an optimal road of China ’ s carbon trading is put forward. The results show that carbon emissions could be controlled by carbon trading. The investment to carbon trading hampers economic growth in the near future, and ESER technical progress is negatively correlated with carbon trading in the long run. Demand and supply relationship is closely related to carbon price, both are the important issues in carbon trading system. Excessive government control and extortionate carbon price will deliver the opposite effect and even fatal influence on carbon trading system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The key distinction between production-based and consumption-based accounting lies in the way in which trade-embodied emissions are allocated between producer and consumer regions. Yet, these two regions are not necessarily directly connected to each other in supply chains, due to spatial production fragmentation. To better understand the link from the production-based to the consumption-based regional carbon inventories, this paper defines the economic length of carbon transfer (ELCT) as the number of administrative border-crossing involved in the influence process of a region’s final demand on the carbon emissions of another region. Using a multi-regional input-output analysis framework for China, we propose an approach to calculating the ELCT related to a region’s production or demand for domestic consumption or international export. We find that the average ELCT in 2010 is 1.34 and that more than a quarter of interregional carbon transfer crosses provincial borders twice or more. The provincial and sectoral analysis of ELCT reveals that spatial production fragmentation is an important challenge to be conquered for successful implementation of consumption-based climate regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the driving factors behind energy consumption changes provides insights about consumption patterns and can inform targeted energy saving polices. This paper applies a joint decomposition approach, introducing an index decomposition analysis (IDA) method into a production theoretical decomposition analysis (PDA). This integrated approach decomposed energy consumption changes into eight drivers. A subsequent empirical study of China resulted in three key findings. First, regardless of the geographic area considered, potential economic development was the largest factor driving energy consumption growth. Second, the technological change effects associated with economic development and energy savings both played significant roles in reducing energy consumption. Third, the efficiency change effects of energy use and economic development were generally unable to relieve the pressure of increases in energy consumption, especially in the eastern regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural gas is regarded as a cleaner alternative to coal combustion-based power generation (CPG) for urban use. Because of the insufficient natural gas reserve in China, coal-based synthetic natural gas (SNG) has been under rapid development. However, coal-based SNG production process has problems of environmental pollution and emission transfer. This paper uses life cycle assessment to compare the CPG and SNG energy production and usage routes, in order to find a reasonable way to reduce the environmental pollution and production cost. Results show that the CPG route is superior to the SNG route in terms of the haze pollution emissions, greenhouse gases emissions, coal resource consumption and life cycle cost. However, the water consumption of the CPG route is much higher than that of the SNG route. The SNG route is more suitable to adopt in water-deficient areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improvement of coal consumption efficiency is very important both for China in solving its problems of energy security and environmental pollution and for the world in addressing the issue of greenhouse gas emissions. Using a total-factor framework, this paper employs a data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach to evaluate the coal consumption efficiency of six energy intensive sub-industries in China in 2015. Coal consumption efficiency is factorized into economic efficiency and environmental efficiency, with sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and industrial smoke, dust and soot emissions treated as undesirable outputs of energy consumptions. The results show the following. (1) Of the six energy intensive sub-industries studied, two exhibit both DEA-effective coal economic efficiency and coal environmental efficiency. Coal economic efficiency is found to be greater than coal environmental efficiency, indicating that the benefits of economic efficiency have masked the negative effects of the environmental impact. China should therefore pay more attention to the clean utilization of coal. (2) Low environmental efficiency mainly resulted from the joint effects of pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency; therefore, enterprises in these industries must engage in management efforts to improve their ability to manage large enterprises. (3) The energy intensive industries characterized by coal environmental efficiency that failed to achieve pure technological effectiveness all exhibited input redundancy or output inadequacy of varying degrees while showing a potential for energy conservation and emissions reductions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Severe environmental problems are resulted from the rapid growth of electricity consumption in China, since thermal power plant occupies the predominant position in power generation and releases large amount of pollutants and greenhouse gas. Electricity consumption of residential sector grows even faster than that of industrial sector in recent years. Residential sector is increasingly believed to have huge potential of energy saving and efficiency improvement. This paper aims at discovering the regional difference of household electricity consumption (HEC). First, a research framework is provided to identify the characteristics of HEC from the following three dimensions, consumption volatility, pattern similarity and temperature sensitivity. Households are divided into different groups in each city. The major household groups that account for the largest proportion are identified and then regarded as representatives of different cities. The fluctuation characteristics of their typical load profiles are compared and discussed in detail. Moreover, we design an Empty City Index (ECI) to further discuss the relationship between HEC and the population flow in special time intervals, for example, Chinese Spring Festival. The empirical study demonstrates that population outflow during Spring Festival is more obvious in wealthier city. Through k-means clustering, typical household groups as well as their typical load profiles are identified in each city. And the results show that under the current tiered pricing for household electricity (TPHE), nearly 10% households in each city still have potential for load reduction and load shifting. For the entire Jiangsu province, such households account for 12.5%. Policy implications and the applicability of this study are suggested and discussed respectively to government, household customers and electric power companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The heat source types in China were not limited to the coal, other types of energy were introduced into the heating energy consumption in recent years, and therefore the specific regional impact of the heating emissions could not be obtained accurately according to the current achievement. Based on this, this study aimed to quantify the impact of the heating emissions on the air quality in an efficient and accurate way. A new method was proposed for investigating the quantitative impact of the heating emissions on the air quality index in this paper and its assumptions and accuracy were verified as well. The data employed in this method is extracted from Ministry of Environmental Protection Data Centre, Qingyue open source and Shanghai Central Meteorological Observatory. The key prerequisites of the proposed method were discussed in this study. By calculating, the averaged absolute difference of the meteorological parameters, namely Clo, WD, WS and P, is 3.58%, 2.40%, 3.21% and 3.94%, respectively. The difference ratio of the industrial emissions relative to the total emissions is as low as 4.3%. The optimal principal component number is six for the proposed method, which can satisfy the accuracy requirement with minimum workload. Compared with the results in previous similar studies, the proposed method showed excellent performance in analyzing the regional impact of the heating emissions on ambient air quality in China. Moreover, a total of 64 North cities in China were analyzed based on the proposed method to promote the knowledge on the influence of heating emissions on the environmental quality and the related parameters were provided in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, performance evaluation of coal-fired power generation with high pollution based on data envelopment analysis (DEA) method has become an advanced research hotspot in China. Instead of a single process in previous studies, we divide the production system of coal-fired power plants into the production process and pollutants abatement process, with pollutant intermediates as the link to connect the two processes in the current paper. Then we present a new two-stage network DEA model to evaluate the performance of China's coal-fired power generation by improving the link constraint that different with traditional network DEA approaches. Meanwhile, we conduct an empirical study to verify the applicability of the proposed approach and find that the proposed model is more effective than the previous models in evaluating the inefficiencies of coal-fired power generation. The empirical results also show that: the inefficiencies of the pollutants abatement process bring poor performance of the regional coal-fired power plants; and the efficiency results vary greatly among different areas of China, efficiency is best in the west area but the worst in the northeast area. Finally, some appropriate propositions are present in order to create better conditions for China's sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently the expansion of urban-rural income inequality and the rapid growth of fossil-energy consumption have become two significant challenges China should address to achieve its ambitious goals. For the first time, this study uses the Chinese provincial panel data during the period of 1996–2013 to perform a quantitative analysis on the relationship between the urban-rural income gap and the per capita electricity consumption. Fully considering the potential endogeneity problem, this paper uses the orthogonal-difference Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) as the benchmark estimation method. To ensure the robustness of the estimations, the Theil index and per capita urban-rural income are utilized to measure the urban-rural income gap. The estimation results indicate that the influences of urban-rural income inequality on electricity depend on the income level. At the current stage of economic development, the income disparity has significantly negative impacts on provincial per capita electricity consumption. Moreover, there is also strong evidence for the existence of the inverted U-shaped relationship between per capita electricity consumption and GDP per capita. Furthermore, other economic and social factors, including the enhancement of urbanization and industrialization levels, the adjustment of the population structure, and the development of import-export trade may also promote electricity consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]