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The time-varying dynamics of the transition to renewable energy reflect the effectiveness and efficiency of energy policy. This paper investigates renewable energy transition behavior in China using Markov regime-switching models. Two distinct phases, expansion and contraction, are identified based on the growth rates of renewable energy consumption share. We find that since China started its new-energy national strategy in 2005, there has been an extended period in which it has been in the expansion state, although it occasionally reverts to a contraction state. Intriguingly, we uncover that the timing of transition state changes can be explained by the changes in policy-related, market-based instruments and risk-related indexes. These findings present implications for policymakers in developing more precise and effective policies, that drives investment choices to align with the goal of a sustainable energy system. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In January 2017, the Chinese government released the first special plan for the development of geothermal energy, named “ The 13th five-year plan for geothermal energy development and utilization (2016–2020) ”, which promotes the development of geothermal energy to the national energy strategic level. As a stable and low-carbon renewable energy, it is significant to develop geothermal energy to relieve air pollution and supply continuous base load power. This paper first introduces the resource endowments of geothermal energy in China, the current status and development targets of geothermal energy use, as well as series of related policies on China's geothermal energy. Then the economic, environmental and social benefits of geothermal energy development are analyzed respectively. Next, based on the PESTEL framework, this paper analyzes the unfavorable factors in the development of geothermal energy in China. Fourth, based on the PESTEL analysis results, we give some countermeasures and solutions for the future development of China's geothermal energy from two aspects of technology and policy. Finally, based on the above analysis, the corresponding conclusions and policy recommendations are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently China's wind power industry is challenged by many problems such as wind power integration and wind curtailment, which seriously hinders the development of onshore wind power. Since China's policy has a direct and significant influence on wind power industry, it is vital to analyze and evaluate published policies. This paper explores in detail 134 China's onshore wind power policies from 2005 to 2015 so as to provide analytical support for future formulation and implementation of wind power policy. Based on policy summary from equipment manufacturing industry, wind farms and power grid industry, this paper evaluates the policies from the perspective of overall plan, support policy and policy implementation using fitting method, game theory and empirical analysis. The results indicate that China's wind policy is gradually becoming perfected, for example, there are more reasonable objectives and improved support policies. However, many problems remain to be solved, like unreasonable planning, imperfect support policies, immature trading systems and uncoordinated actions among interest related parties. Furthermore, combined with international experiences, suggestions on improving China's wind power policy are proposed from seven aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demand Response (DR) has been extensively developed and implemented in the US and Europe. However, DR hardly exists in many developing countries for similar problems such as rigid power market and state monopoly. With the increasing imbalance between supply and demand in China's power industry, the government has issued new policies on DR and approved the first batch of pilot cities. China is setting a good example of how to encourage DR under monopolistic electric market and open up the market to aggregators and DR suppliers. This paper summarizes the current DR status, feasible DR market schemes and DR pilot projects in China. First, electric power system reform, renewable energy policies and power industry development are reviewed, highlighting the problems associated with the current dispatch mechanisms of DR policies and markets. New DR programs and DR-related policies are also introduced. On this basis, the driving forces and challenges associated with DR in China are analyzed. The major challenge is the lack of a suitable market mechanism for the current Chinese power industry. Hence, this paper presents six feasible strategies that fully utilize the existing policies. Additionally, the latest DR applications in different pilot cities are summarized and analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With important implications for global climate change mitigation, the development of a cap-and-trade emission trading scheme (ETS) in China is embedded in distinctive political, economic, and institutional contexts and has been attracting increasing attention in recent years. To offer a clear perspective on current research progress, this paper systematically reviews the recent literature on China’s ETS from three main aspects: mechanism design, policy and regional linkages, as well as impact assessment. The current research consensuses are summarized based upon detailed literature analyses and commentaries, and together with observations of international experience and China’s actual condition, the paper provides policy proposals for the development of China’s national ETS during 2016–2020. Finally, several important controversies in the current literature are discussed with regard to the practical demands of China’s ETS development. Five pressing topics that need to be further studied in the coming years are highlighted, including cap setting, allowance allocation among sectors and enterprises, carbon pricing, policy package and unified carbon market construction, as well as ex-ante and ex-post impact assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary This paper examines how the efficacy of energy-saving policies can be improved through learning. Effective allocation of energy-saving targets is key to achieving China’s reduction targets for energy intensity. Despite growing research interest in the energy-saving target allocation system, details regarding the logic and rationale behind the modifications to the system since the 11th FYP period remain unclear. This paper contributes to the previous literature by applying the concept of policy learning to an analysis of how and from what sources the Chinese government has learned to improve its energy-saving target allocation system over the 2006–13 period. Our study finds that the Chinese government has developed a distinct policy style of “learning from multiple sources” that involves three primary sources: previous experience, local practice, and expert knowledge. Although the extant literature has previously identified these three sources of learning, most of this literature has focused on only one—or at most two—sources of learning at any given time. The uniqueness of policy learning in the energy-saving target allocation system consists of the co-existence of these three sources of learning in one case. This learning-oriented policy style is characterized by reflexivity, which allows current policies to be adjusted in a timely manner in order to alleviate prospective risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DSPV (Distributed solar PV) power, either located on rooftops or ground-mounted, is by far one of the most important and fast-growing renewable energy technologies. Since the second half of 2012, China has shifted from LSPV (large-scale solar PV) to DSPV and a series of policy to promote DSPV power deployment have been put in place. Unfortunately these policies were not well performed due to myriad constraints on DSPV power deployment across the country. Building mainly on non-academic sources including government documents and presentations, industry reports and presentations, media reports, and interviews, this paper firstly provides a comprehensive review of China's policy on DSPV passed between the second half of 2012 and the first half of 2014, then barriers associated with DSPV deployment are identified. This is followed by an account and discussions of recent policy changes since Sep 2014, and major local incentives. In addition, policy performance is briefly reviewed. At the end of the paper, conclusions and policy implications are provided. This paper provides an understanding of the recent DSPV policy progress in China and insights for policy makers in other economies which are experimenting DSPV power policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to assess the viability of wind energy projects in China, this paper takes a real options approach by accounting for flexibility over deployment of the technology in response to a stochastic non-renewable energy cost. The difference between the latter and the R&D-enhanced cost of renewable energy operation may be thought of as a benefit from using wind. On the other hand, the Chinese government provides feed-in tariffs to encourage further adoption of wind, which should be included as a cost. This work, thus, shows that there is substantial options value to China's wind energy program, which is bolstered if the cost of carbon dioxide emissions is internalized. Moreover, by varying the rate of feed-in tariffs, the model may be used to show plausible ranges for the feed-in tariffs, which could be a useful policy insight. Furthermore, the study hypothesizes that with the likelihood of renewable energy to replace non-renewable energy, wind power in China can potentially reduce CO 2 emissions by approximately 6.4% by 2020 comparing to the 2005 level and highlights the significant role of wind power in China's emission targets and energy security. This is a relevant paper, especially given the importance of a sustainable energy transition for China. More generally, using the real options approach from a policy perspective could provide insights about the viability of renewable energy programs and robustness of feed-in tariffs rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both developed and developing countries have committed to reduce their emissions through the increased use of renewable energy. This paper aims to compare renewable energy deployment in developed and developing countries represented by Australia and China. The paper firstly argues the validity of comparison of renewable energy deployment in Australia and China. Then, the governance structures in both countries are compared; the paper also compares management mechanisms in terms of funding and incentive support, renewable energy grid-connection and coordination between different levels of governments in both countries. Moreover, the current status of renewable energy development in two countries is summarized. From the study, it can be concluded both countries have set a Renewable Energy Target and promulgated legislation and regulations to enlarge the scale of renewable energy; China shows a stronger commitment to renewable energy than Australia. However, Renewable Energy Certificate mechanism is implemented more effectively in Australia than in China. The paper suggests: augmenting and rebuilding the electricity network and strengthening coordination between different levels of governments for both countries; enhancing manufacturing facilities and incentives for the solar and wind industry for Australia, while developing more-detailed implementation legislation and renewable power quota system for China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contagion tests through mean and volatility channels are developed based on an exponential generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedastic model to investigate the effects of China's 2009–2020 solar power policies on the economic performance of different sectors. By examining the fluctuations in the daily stock prices of nine major economic sectors in China, we show the transmission mechanisms of policy shocks and find evidence that China's major solar energy policies, including feed-in tariffs, solar subsidies, and market-based instruments, have significant effects on most of the studied sectors in China through both mean and volatility contagion channels. Among the three types of policies, feed-in tariffs and solar subsidies are found to be the most effective instruments in improving sector performance, while market-based instruments have the least effect. The risk premium effect is weak, but the asymmetric effect is strong, suggesting that market volatility responds considerably less to positive news than to negative news for the majority of sectors investigated. • The highlights of this paper include. • The impacts of China's 2009–2020 solar industry policies on its sector performance. • Policy contagion is developed to identify how policy shocks affect economic sectors. • Feed-in tariffs and solar subsidies are found to be effective instrument. • Significant asymmetric effect is observed in major economic sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent rapid development of distributed PV (photovoltaic) industry in China closely ties to the relevant policies support. This paper reviews some main points of relevant policies including financial support, technology innovation and management improvement. Scenario analysis both in residential sectors and industrial and commercial sectors are taken into account. We calculate IRR (internal rate of return) and static payback period of a specific distributed PV system in China's five cities located in different resource areas. In order to provide a realistic reference for investors, the historical data from real projects are used to calculate the generating capacity. The impacts of relevant policy variables such as subsidies, benchmark price, electricity price and tax on economic performance of distributed PV system are discussed. The results show that distributed PV system with high generation efficiency has produced good economic benefit in both two scenarios under China's current policies. The current policy instruments on distributed PV industry are efficient. At the end of the paper, policy recommendations are offered as references for the government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China, the population is expected to continue to grow together with construction of new buildings. Consequently, the energy demand required by the building sector will inevitably rise. This paper focuses on the Chinese residential sector and describes the structure by using the EfB—energy for buildings model. Using this tool it is possible to simulate the trend of the energy demand until 2030. A range of different scenarios – at national and regional level – is presented and discussed, including government plans and the application of some proposed recommendations. The analysis suggests that the energy consumption in this sector will not stop its growth and in 2030 it will comprise between 9500 and 14,000 PJ. Meaningful energy savings can be achieved with the introduction of more aggressive policies and behavioural change. Many difficulties have been faced in this work because of the complexity and rapid evolution of the Country; anyway, it can be considered as a starting point for future research. Among further improvements, the paper suggests the introduction of a more complete description of the building types, the association of the floor area evolution to the construction sector activity and the inclusion of economic and environmental evaluations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is vast, abundant and particularly plentiful in energy sources, due to which it has obtained remarkable achievements on economy. However, its energy structure is too simple to support the sustainable development of economy as coal still contributes to the majority of energy consumption in China. As a consequence, Renewable Energy Law was enacted in 2005, and Chinese government announced a series of policies to boom renewable energy industry. Subsidy policy is one of the major forms of these policies. This paper aims to present these subsidy policies and to analyze their effects according to relative data in energy industry 2005–2013, to find out the deficiencies and enlighten possible policy improvements. The original intentions and abstracts of 5 different levels of subsidy related policies are summarized, and the effects in reality are attentively analyzed. It can be concluded that subsidy policies have different short-term effect on different renewable energies, and they all show some negative effect to a certain extent. 6 core problems are summarized in this paper, and remedy strategies are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green roof is an effective energy efficiency measure to reduce the building cooling load in summer and heating load in winter, in addition, it can add ecological benefit and landscape value to the community. Therefore, it has attracted extensive attention worldwide. This paper studies the selection of planting materials, plant configuration patterns and plant growth medium of the green roofs in China, and presents the researches on ecological benefits, thermal performance, and applications of the green roofs in China. This paper also introduces and analyzes the green roofs development policies in China, including the incentive mechanism, laws and regulations, and finally presents the analysis and suggestions on their application prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying the research topics of China's energy transition policy and predicting future research trends are crucial for policymakers to make informed decisions and advance the energy transition. This study applied the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) to extract 26 major research topics from the 13,976 abstracts of Chinese policy research papers in web of science (WOS), conceptualized the five most popular topics and used the ARIMA model to predict trends over the next 36 months. The results show that except for Economic and Environmental Impact of Renewable Energy Consumption (Topic13), which will first experience unanticipated fluctuations and then show strong growth capacity, all other topics will continue to remain positive growth trend. Research and Development (Topic3) is driven by the urgency of China's energy transformation. Economic and Environmental Impact of Renewable Energy Consumption (Topic13) is driven by the potential for the development of renewable energy. Economic Impact of Climate Change (Topic26) is driven by the climate change debate. Economic Growth, Urbanization, and Energy Consumption (Topic7) is driven by a discussion of their relationship and the mechanisms influencing them. Regional Efficiency and Productivity Analysis (Topic19) is driven by regional differences in China's energy policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is often referred to as a global benchmark for the energy transition. Regarding energy sustainability, China's strategies and policies might be viewed as either highly innovative or detrimental. Considering the Chinese economy, population, consumption, and pollution rates, the country's energy transition decisions are deemed major determinants for the present and future global energy sustainability, resilience and related conditions. This paper aims to provide a measure and definition of these phenomena to characterize selected aspects, highlighting China's global and regional status. To this end, an interval-based composite indicator assessment is reviewed, indicating that China holds a mid-tier status in terms of energy sustainability relative to global standards. Therefore, energy security standards serve as the foundation for China's transition path to ensuring a clean, renewable and sustainable energy supply and resilience in the future conditional to universal and democratic energy justice achievement. • China's energy transition, resilience and sustainable development are analyzed. • An interval-data composite indicator is constructed. • The global and regional status of China in energy change is measured. • Energy security standards serve as the foundation for China's transition path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ongoing transformation of the world's energy system requires detailed power-system models that help plan a cost-effective and reliable integration of variable renewables and demand-side resources. The quality and depth of the results of these models depend on the existence of trustworthy, complete, and high-resolution data on extant electric power assets and the demand they serve, wind and solar resources, and projections on costs and performance of technologies that could be developed during the next three decades. This paper assesses the quality of China's power system's publicly available data compared to the U.S. It concludes that despite growing use of power system models to inform and analyze Chinese energy policy, the availability of necessary data is still a significant barrier that severely limits the transparency, replicability, relevance, and usefulness of their results. • Ongoing energy system transformation requires detailed power-system models. • Usefulness of models' results depends on reliable, complete high-resolution data. • Paper proposes criteria to assess the quality of publicly available data for models. • Publicly available data for China's electric power system is scant and low quality. • Filling data gaps will inform decisions for a sustainable electric power system. [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 continuous diffusion of information and communication technology (ICT) has exerted growing influences on the production process and energy use. This paper analyzes the major drivers behind changes in China's energy intensity with emphasis on ICT and production structure using a three-tier structural decomposition analysis (SDA) approach. This approach could thoroughly quantify the various effects of ICT on energy intensity and investigate the mechanisms of ICT input change through which it affects sectoral energy consumption. The main results indicate that: (a) production structure exerted a rising negative effect on China's energy intensity change from 2002 to 2012; (b) ICT contributed to a 4.54% increment in energy intensity, yet ICT input substitution was conducive to reduce energy use in production; (c) the ICT effects were more significant in the service sector and technology-intensive sectors. The study suggests that the Chinese government should formulate measures for adjusting production structure, promoting sustainable development of ICT and harmonizing inter-sectoral ICT input level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the concept of remanufacturing is gaining popularity in practice, its effect on environmental protection and energy saving is significant, which has attracted widespread concerns, especially in the automotive components field. Automotive components remanufacturing (ACR), as a prominent part in automotive life-cycle development, can dramatically reduce resources-waste and mitigate energy-crisis, which has become a prominent direction to promote sustainable development of Chinese economy. Thus, influence factors analysis and enterprise operation patterns assessment which primarily contribute to ACR industry development are of paramount importance. This paper elaborates the criteria influencing the ACR industry operation and analyzes the main operation patterns for ACR in China. To overcome the uncertainty of the evaluation process, a new hybrid multi-criterion decision-making (MCDM) model that combines fuzzy AHP (analytical hierarchy process) and fuzzy G-TOPSIS (combining gray relation analysis and technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution) is proposed to determine weights of influence criteria and evaluate ACR production operation patterns. In addition, sensitivity analysis is applied to monitor the robustness of the method. The study refers to the experience of Chinese end-of-life vehicle (ELV) laws and implementation requirements of extended producer responsibility (EPR). The obtained results provide the new guideline to revise the regulations of Chinese ACR industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because industrial sectors in China are energy-intensive, improving energy efficiency and promoting energy savings in these sectors are of great importance for the further sustainable development of China’s economy. Using a proposed meta-frontier data envelopment analysis (DEA), this paper analyzes the total-factor energy efficiency and energy savings potential in China’s provincial industrial sectors for the years 2000–2014 from three perspectives, namely, the technology gap, management, and scale. The results indicate that (1) driven by technological progress, energy efficiency during the sample period was greatly improved, though the expansion of technology gaps between regions and the decline in scale efficiency represented two significant handicaps; (2) the current energy efficiency in China’s industrial sectors remains extremely low, indicating that there is considerable potential for energy efficiency improvement and energy savings; and (3) the sources of energy inefficiency and energy savings potential in China’s industrial sectors exhibit spatially distinct characteristics. Accordingly, it is determined that most of China’s eastern provinces should focus on improving scale and management efficiency, whereas most of its central and western provinces should concentrate on three factors: narrowing the regional technology gap, improving management efficiency, and optimizing the industrial scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, there is no specific legal basis for the development and utilisation of marine renewable energy, nor legal protection for the developers in China. The consequence is that the Chinese Government is unable to provide institutional support for the substantive development of marine renewable energy, resulting in slow development of China's marine energy industry. This paper provides an institutional framework for the establishment of relevant laws in China and legislative proposals in legal perspective, for the better development of marine renewable energy. The Chinese Government should optimise the administrative management system, strengthen financial regulation such as tax and emphasise sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uncovering the contributions of each sector’s driving factors to the growth of national economic carbon emissions has great significance for China in developing its nationwide emission trading scheme (ETS). The paper applies the index decomposition analysis (IDA) and logarithmic mean divisia index (LMDI) model to discuss the underlying drivers behind China’s national economic carbon emissions during the period 1996–2012 from both sector and factor decomposition perspectives and accordingly offers policy proposals for China’s national ETS development. Major conclusions include: (1) Six heavy industry sectors, the transport & storage & post sector, and the construction sector are the largest contributors, and hence proposed for incorporation into the ETS’s coverage. (2) The rapid expansion of economic output dominantly increases carbon emissions. The design of cap on emissions should allow for a proper increment and establish a new entrant reserve to coordinate economic development. (3) As the dynamics of carbon emissions vary markedly across sectors, allowance allocation needs to consider the changing sectoral structure of emissions. (4) The combined effects of sectoral energy intensity and structure changes largely offset carbon emissions. Benchmarking is suggested as an ideal allocation mechanism, and the setup of sectoral carbon intensity benchmark should synthetically evaluate the potential impacts of related factors. (5) Manufacturer-based manner and carbon offset mechanism are respectively recommended for the initial implementation of carbon trading in the transport & storage & post sector and the construction sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper links theoretical perspectives from energy efficiency economics with those observed from corporate environmental strategy to develop a framework for explaining energy efficiency strategies by firms in response to national policies and local regulations in China. The framework is refined through analytic generalization of 20 cases from four industries and four cities in Jiangsu Province, and reveals two strategies: 1) firms with moderate institutional pressure seek incremental competitiveness by adopting energy-saving technologies, which is reinforced by their informational, organizational, and financing capabilities, and facilitated by voluntary policies and industrial competition; 2) firms with survival risk or development constraints under regulation seek a position favored by local governments by replacing old plant and equipment with larger, more efficient ones and contributing to the local community. The Chinese case studies reveal a strong institutional impact on firms' choice of business strategies and particularly the positioning strategy. The identified business strategies shed additional light on the effectiveness and implications of different policy instruments for energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has been the world's largest energy consumer and producer for many years, yet while myriad studies have investigated Chinese performance on energy metrics compared to other countries, few to none have looked internally at Chinese provinces. This paper firstly develops a five-dimensional evaluation system centered on the energy security dimensions of availability and diversity, affordability and equality, technology and efficiency, environmental sustainability, and governance and innovation. It then correlates these dimensions to 20 distinct energy security metrics that are used to assess the energy security performance of 30 Chinese provinces, divided into eight regions. Our results reveal both trends in energy policy and practice as well as provincial status of comparative energy security for the year 2013. We find, for instance, that there is no province which performs well in all five of the energy security dimensions, and that all provinces confronted threats related to energy availability and diversity. We also demonstrate that in comparative terms, the Middle Reaches of Yellow River and the Northwest were the most energy-secure, while the Middle Reaches of Yangtze River and the Northeast were least energy-secure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy security is important for the economic and social development of a country, especially for China, because it has become one of the biggest energy consumers in the world and the energy security varies greatly in different regions. However, most existing studies evaluate China's energy security from the perspective of the whole country, while few studies from the perspective of different regions within the country. So this paper aims to evaluate China's provincial energy security from 2010 to 2016, not only identify the problems but also provide policy strategies. Firstly, a comprehensive evaluation system of energy security is established including availability and stability of energy supply dimension, sustainability and acceptability of energy use dimension, and external influences of policies and market dimension. Secondly, the combination method of the order relation and the entropy method is utilized to evaluate the provincial energy security in 30 provinces, which considers both subjective and objective information. Thirdly, according to the changes in the ranking of provincial energy security between the 30 provinces over the 7 years, this paper analyzes the reasons and put up corresponding suggestions. The results show that there is still a huge gap among different regions and some provinces changes greatly in the ranking. The most energy-secure provinces are mainly in the northwest and northeast provinces with abundant natural resources such as Shanxi, Shaanxi and Sichuan, the least energy-secure provinces are mainly in the resource-deficient regions such as Zhejiang, Guangxi and Jiangxi. And in order to beef up the provincial energy security, suggesting that some provinces should develop clean energy, optimize the structure of terminal energy consumption and improve energy efficiency according to the changes in the ranking. • We developed a provincial energy security evaluation system from 3 dimensions. • Analysis and policy recommendations in different provinces of China is conducted. • The most energy-secure provinces are mainly in the northwest and northeast provinces. • The least energy-secure provinces are mainly in the resource-deficient regions. • Some provinces changed greatly in energy security performance from 2010 to 2016. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community shared solar (CSS) program has great potentials in contributing to the complete decarbonization of the power sectors worldwide. Few research have focused on its potential diffusion from the user perspective. This paper fills the gap by conducting a survey-based unlabeled choice experiment in the Guangdong Province, China to investigate the determinants of potential users' willingness to participate in CSS programs. We analyzed the survey data using a random parameter logit model. Our results show that users are more likely to participate in CSS programs with lower upfront payment, trialability, shorter payback period, a public utility as provider and larger impact on climate change mitigation. However, they are likely to accept longer payback period in CSS programs with higher participation rate because of the potential benefit from interpersonal communication. Users' previous knowledge of CSS programs and income will also increase their willingness to participate in CSS programs with higher upfront payment. Our results provide important implications for designing policies and business models to promote the distributive renewable energy in China. • Community shared solar is widely accepted among surveyed individuals in our choice experiment. • The business model, and the ownership structure of community shared solar affect its potential adoption. • The interpersonal communication and public promotion of community shared solar program can increase its popularity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, China has started to change its growth strategy to a more sustainable model in response to the limits-to-growth dilemma. Specifically, the national policy advocates to promote the use of green-manufacturing technologies through demonstration projects, and to incentivize Chinese manufacturers to adopt these green-technologies that are also encouraged by local governments. These green technologies can increase the economic gains of manufacturers by reducing costs on energy consumption and shift away from selling low-margin products. However, the local authorities often encounter obstacles when implementing policies for promoting these technologies among manufacturing firms. This paper explores the factors that affect the decision-making of user firms throughout the policy implementation process. Based on the econometric analysis of the survey for China's electric motors upgrading project in Guangdong Province, this study shows that three key factors are helpful in the local government's effort to implement the national project, i.e. manufacturers' awareness, the understanding of the energy-efficiency technology, and the long-term macroeconomic benefits. In addition, encouraging the participation of financial institutions is especially useful for local governments to convince small-and-medium sized firms. These findings are beneficial for local implementation of green-manufacturing technology diffusion policies in China and have worldwide policy implication as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work investigates different scenarios for electric vehicle (EV) deployment in China and explores the implications thereof with regard to energy portfolio, economics and the environment. Specifically, we investigate how to better deliver the value of EVs by improving designs in the power system and charging strategies, given expected developments by 2030 in both the power system and EV penetration levels. The impact of EV charging is quantified by applying an integrated transportation-power system model on a set of scenarios which represent uncertainties in charging strategies. We find that deploying EVs essentially shifts the use of gasoline to coal-fired power generation in China, thus leading to more coal consumption and CO 2 emissions of the power system. Economically, EVs outperform gasoline-powered vehicles in terms of average fueling costs. However, the impact of EVs in terms of CO 2 emissions at the national level largely depends on the charging strategy. Specifically, controlled charging results in more CO 2 emissions associated with EVs than uncontrolled charging, as it tends to feed EVs with electricity produced by cheap yet low-efficiency coal power plants located in regions where coal prices are low. Still, compared with uncontrolled charging, controlled charging shows absolute advantages in: (1) mitigating the peak load arising from EV charging; (2) facilitating RES generation; and (3) reducing generation costs and EV charging costs. Hence, in light of this trade-off of controlled charging with the goals of energy security, economic efficiency and reducing environmental impacts, policy interventions in the Chinese power system should opt for controlled charging strategies in order to best realize the benefits of EVs. Accordingly, this paper proposes that increasing the use of cleaner forms of electricity generation, such as RES power and gas power, and establishing energy efficiency and CO 2 emission regulations in power dispatch are critical for China. Lastly, this work illustrates what the optimized charging profiles from the power system perspective look like for different regions. These results can inform Chinese policy makers in creating a better integration of the transportation and the power system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China׳s 12th Five-Year Plan, released in March 2011, specifies water management targets in addition to energy and carbon intensity targets. Energy and water resources are becoming the major bottlenecks restricting sustainable development in China. Energy and water are interconnected and complementary; however, macroenergy policies do not consider the impact on water resources, while water related policies do not consider the impact on energy consumption. In this paper, an energy-water evaluation methodology based on an input–output model was introduced, and correlation between energy and water supply sectors was established by this methodology. The correlation coefficients for the energy-water nexus, allowing the water savings associated with energy saving policies in China to be estimated, particularly for key industrial sectors during the 12th Five-Year Plan period were provided. These results indicate that by achieving the energy saving targets in the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan, progress will also be made toward achieving the water use targets. It is believed that targets for the synergies between energy savings and water conservation should be improved. The effect of water conservation resulting from energy savings varies greatly in different sectors, and to maximize the synergies, energy and water conservation technologies should be promoted in key industrial sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facing with great pressure to feed the demand outstripping the supply situation as well as alleviate the energy pollution problem, China has accelerated the pace of shale gas exploration. During the 12th Five-Year-Plan (FYP) period, Chinese government and petroleum enterprises actively promoted the development of shale gas industry, and made certain progresses in various aspects. Meanwhile, a series of preferential and supportive policies were developed to encourage shale gas exploration. However, as the shale gas industry is still in the initial stage in China, there are many challenges and difficulties existing in shale gas development. This paper presents a systematical review on the current status and policies of shale gas industry in China, aiming to provide important reference to the policy-makers for introducing and improving policies. Firstly, the current status including progresses and difficulties is presented. Subsequently, the recent policies for shale gas development are reviewed. The analyses of current policies and implementation barriers are followed. Finally, specific policy suggestions are proposed and a general conclusion is drawn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzed the changes in carbon-dioxide (CO 2 ) emission in China׳s cement industry over the period 1991–2010. Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) was applied for the decomposition analysis. Five determinants were examined and the results divided into five time intervals, according to China׳s five-year economic plans. The results show that labor productivity was the major driving force of increase in CO 2 emission in China׳s cement industry, and energy intensity was the major contributor to CO 2 emission reduction. The other three factors also generated certain level of effects. This article provides some policy suggestions which could be adopted to reduce CO 2 emission in this energy-intensive industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facing serious energy constraints and environmental challenges, policy makers in China have set up clear targets to reduce energy intensity in order to secure a sustainable economic growth; however, it is unclear in theory what the determining forces are. The empirical evidence, although intensively discussed in the literature, also remain divided in opinion. This paper contributes to the existing literature full of heated debates using a Bayesian averaging approach to identify robust determinants of energy intensity in China. Using provincial level data, key contributors that help explain the level of energy intensity across China are found. By ranking the relative importance of explanatory variables according to their posterior inclusion probabilities, this study can also offer support to policy makers in designing intensity reduction policies. It is suggested that policies should focus on those robust and relatively more important factors such as fiscal expenditure, infrastructure and economic structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable energy is an important factor in achieving a low-carbon economic development path in China. This paper investigates the factors influencing renewable electricity consumption in China. Specifically, the factors that influence the share of renewable electricity in total electricity consumption in China is investigated using data from 1980 to 2011 and employing the Johansen cointegration technique and vector error correction model. The result of the analysis shows that there is a long run relationship between renewable electricity consumption and GDP per capita, trade openness, foreign direct investment, financial development and share of fossil fuel in energy consumption. Economic development and financial development promotes renewable electricity consumption while foreign direct investment, trade openness and the lobby of conventional energy sources undermine the share of renewables in total electricity consumption in China. While the effects of shocks to the other variables appear to die out over time, the “lobby effect” is persistent and explosive. The results also show that there is a uni-directional short run causality from financial development to renewable electricity consumption and from renewable electricity consumption to trade openness. The Chinese government should pursue policies that not only increase the amount of renewable electricity, but also increase the share of renewables in total electricity consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CCUS technology has the potential to reduce emissions substantially from the whole lifecycle of traditional energy-intensive industry on a large-scale basis. A summary of the current status of CCUS in China is viewed as a necessary background and a starting point for the content of the following paper. Next, the positioning and analysis of China’s future CCUS development are presented by answering the following questions “Why does China need CO 2 utilization?” and “How much of the CO 2 emission reductions which result from CCUS technology does China need to be responsible for?”. Then, the important influential factors of China's CCUS development are summarized into three aspects (technology maturity, technology sustainability, and external impact factors). Finally, based on these findings, some important comments and suggestions are proposed for the future RD&D of CCUS technology in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2000, solar thermal utilization (STU) has a great process in China, not only with a large scale commercial development, but also with an increasing number of scientific publications and patent applications. In this paper, several representative technologies of STU in China are studied based on an analysis of the relationship between patents and policies. Patent information of STU is collected and analyzed in terms of the time distribution, type distribution and technical trends. The main driving factor—energy policy—was discussed through the patent analysis. STU patents took off after the millennium and 85.8% of them came from the solar water heater. For conventional technologies, 94.2% of the granted patents were from companies and individuals, and the patents proposed by various research institutions were mainly in the technological beginning and technological maturity. Advanced technologies are still at a growth stage in China, and they have 412 patents in all and 70.5% of the patents were from systematic design and test method. Energy policies have played a significant role in promoting the progress of STU in China. Based on a patent analysis, it can be expected that STU will enter the age of medium-high temperature in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, China has witnessed substantial progress in urbanization and industrialization and has become the manufacturing center of the world, but has suffered from severe environmental deterioration, especially air pollution. National and provincial governments have adopted a series of policy tools aiming at energy conservation and emission reduction, varying from energy saving regulations to cleaner production policies. This paper investigates provincial energy saving and emission reduction policies by evaluating their effectiveness on local air pollution control. Relying on a panel data regression analysis on a sample of 26 provinces and four centrally-controlled municipalities over a ten-year period from 2002 to 2011, we find empirical support for the positive impacts of provincial energy saving regulations and two environmental standards on the improvement of local air quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coordinated actions of the central and the provincial governments are important in improving China's energy efficiency. This paper uses a three-dimensional decomposition model to measure the contribution of each province in improving the country's energy efficiency and a small-sample hybrid model to forecast this contribution. Empirical analysis draws the following conclusions which are useful for the central government to adjust its provincial energy-related policies. (a) There are two important areas for the Chinese government to improve its energy efficiency: adjusting the provincial economic structure and controlling the number of the small-scale private industrial enterprises; (b) Except for a few outliers, the energy efficiency growth rates of the northern provinces are higher than those of the southern provinces; provinces with high growth rates tend to converge geographically; (c) With regard to the energy sustainable development level, Beijing, Tianjin, Jiangxi, and Shaanxi are the best performers and Heilongjiang, Shanxi, Shanghai, and Guizhou are the worst performers; (d) By 2020, China's energy efficiency may reach 24.75 thousand yuan per ton of standard coal; as well as (e) Three development scenarios are designed to forecast China's energy consumption in 2012–2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reform of China’s power industry has lasted for decades, while the implementation of demand side management (DSM) in China is still in its infancy. In this paper, we present a comprehensive study of the DSM and Demand Response (DR) programs in China under the context of China’s power industry reform. We first present a brief introduction of the background, including the socio economic status and geographical location of China, the energy policy of China, China’s power industry, the smart grids and microgrid in China, and the reform of China’s power industry. Then, based on the introduction of DSM and the analysis of DSM practices in some countries, we discuss the development status of DSM and the reform of electricity pricing in China. Finally, the main challenges in five aspects for the future development of DSM programs in China are proposed and discussed. These challenges include customer understanding and participation, advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and information and communication technology (ICT), pricing mechanisms and optimal scheduling, big data analytics based decision support, as well as government regulations and market policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to ease environment pressure and alleviate the scarce problem of energy, Chinese government has begun to exploit and develop shale gas (SG) since 2009. However, the formation of competitive market is bristled with difficulties, due to its infancy, imperfect and lack of standardization. This paper firstly analyzes the status quo of technology, policy, cost, and competition of SG industry in China. Then a system dynamics (SD) model is built to show various trends of Chinese SG industry under different scenarios, which shows that technology, policy and cost all have effects on competitiveness. At last, the simulations reveal that the number of competitors in Chinese SG industry will arrive at its peak from 2019 to 2020. The corresponding recommendations have been presented: Chinese government should pay more attention on the perfection of laws and regulations of SG industry. And competitors should focus on increasing R&D investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inefficient utilization of clean energy and distorted pricing mechanism are the most critical problems that have hampered the reform of China's electric power industry for many years. A large number of clean energy generators have recently been constructed, but water spillage at hydroelectric facilities and wind curtailment persist due to integration challenges. The adjustment of electricity price has relied on executive orders of the Chinese government and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). Distorted prices that are not derived from a market economy have seriously hampered the development of China's electricity market. Therefore, in recent years, the Chinese government has issued a number of reform measures concerning “direct power-purchase for large users”. The main idea of this pricing mechanism is to form direct negotiations between large users and generators to determine the electricity price. To a certain extent, this pricing mechanism is conducive to the electricity market reform in China. However, the coordination between clean energy generation and thermal power generation under the policy of “direct power-purchase for large users” has become the key issue in China's electric power industry. This paper summarizes the policies of “direct power-purchase for large users” in different provinces in China. The electricity market in Yunnan, for which the contradiction between thermal power generation and hydropower generation is increasingly severe, is the focus of the research. At last, a feasible electricity market scheme has been derived to coordinate thermal power generation and hydropower generation. This scheme has considerable theoretical and practical significance to the future of China's electricity market reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is concerned with a comprehensive analysis of building energy efficiency policies in light of improvements in energy performance, living standards and climate change mitigation in China's built environment. In recent years, China has added about 1.7 billion square meters of new floor space in both urban and rural areas on an annual basis. In 2010, the total area of existing buildings in China was approximately 48.6 billion square meters, nearly twice the total of existing buildings areas in the European Union. How to improve energy efficiency in the soaring number of new buildings and accelerate the retrofit of the huge number of existing buildings are two daunting challenges currently facing China in terms of energy security and climate change mitigation at a global level. China has gradually altered the building energy efficiency policy portfolio, from a purely regulatory approach with a mandatory building code at the initial stage to voluntary green buildings initiatives. This paper is structured as a critical assessment of building energy efficiency policies for new and existing buildings. Both strengths and weaknesses of the implemented energy efficiency policies are detailed in each of the studied areas. It also discusses the dilemma of public games in green and sustainable buildings production in the context of Chinese economic development and societal transition. The analysis emphasises the importance of guaranteeing the consistency between policies in the current regulatory framework to maximise the effectiveness of energy efficiency policies in the built environment in China. For this, it is necessary to articulate building energy efficiency policies implementation and broader energy and climate policies. This integrative study provides both a retrospective assessment and prospective direction of building energy efficiency policy development in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distributed PV (DPV) has become the policy priority of renewable energy development in China since 2012 and ambitious planning for it has been formulated and updated. In 2013 a national unified subsidy policy was put into implementation. However, the actual progress is far below expectation. In this paper, the analytical framework of levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) is employed to estimate the generation cost of DPV in China. We find that under existing tariff and subsidy policies, with ideal conditions of most favorable financial arrangement and maximum annual operation hours, DPV projects located in regions with best solar resource or high commercial/industrial retail electricity prices are able to break even; but with practical conditions DPV projects are economically unfeasible at most cases. We further find that, difficulty in obtaining roof space, complicated grid integration procedure, barriers in obtaining bank loan, and unattractive and rigid subsidy policy, lead to high investment risks, which largely explains why DPV can't take off in China. A series of policy packages are proposed to address these issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investment in renewable energy is essential for reaching ambitious climate goals outlined in the Paris Agreement. Unfortunately, a large investment gap prevails, particularly in developing economies with underdeveloped domestic capital markets and weak institutions. Multilateral development banks with softer budget constraints and longer investment horizons can play an important role in filling this gap. Development finance, which traditionally originated in the West, has been increasingly dominated by two Chinese state-owned development banks: the China Development Bank and the China Export-Import Bank. These banks acted as major financiers of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative and, between 2005 and 2017, provided more than US$220 billion of overseas energy finance - more than any other multilateral development bank. Their investments have been controversial: the Chinese banks were often accused of financing fossil fuels projects located in politically and economically risky countries. This paper uses detailed data on the Chinese energy finance to illustrate the investment pattern of the Chinese banks, and implements Hurdle and simultaneous Probit models to test whether the two banks are in fact tolerant of the country risk: credit, governance and political risk. The analysis shows that projects located in countries that are politically stable but have higher credit risk and corruption levels are more likely to receive Chinese energy finance. Governance risk and autocratic regime type do not affect the decisions of the Chinese banks. This investment pattern indicates missed opportunities for advancing the clean energy transition and creates future risks for the host countries i.e. stranded assets. Image 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• China's Nationally Determined Contributions do not comply with the Paris Agreement. • Overall coal usage needs to decrease by 60% (2 °C) or even 100% (1.5 °C) by 2050. • 100% Renewable energies are cost-efficient to decarbonize the electricity sector. • Sector coupling increases the electricity demand by 100% (2 °C) to 400% (1.5 °C). • Incentives for local actors are needed for a sustainable low-carbon transformation. Growing prosperity among its population and an inherent increasing demand for energy complicate China's target of combating climate change, while maintaining its economic growth. This paper, therefore, describes three potential decarbonization pathways to analyze different effects for the electricity, transport, heating, and industrial sectors until 2050. Using an enhanced version of the multi-sectoral, open-source Global Energy System Model, enables us to assess the impact of different CO 2 budgets on the upcoming energy system transformation. A detailed provincial resolution allows for the implementation of regional characteristics and disparities within China. Conclusively, we complement the model-based analysis with a quantitative assessment of current barriers for the needed transformation. Results indicate that overall energy system CO 2 emissions and in particular coal usage have to be reduced drastically to meet (inter-) national climate targets. Specifically, coal consumption has to decrease by around 60% in 2050 compared to 2015. The current Nationally Determined Contributions proposed by the Chinese government of peaking emissions in 2030 are, therefore, not sufficient to comply with a global CO 2 budget in line with the Paris Agreement. Renewable energies, in particular photovoltaics and onshore wind, profit from decreasing costs and can provide a more sustainable and cheaper energy source. Furthermore, increased stakeholder interactions and incentives are needed to mitigate the resistance of local actors against a low-carbon transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biomass power is one of the most important renewable energy sources in China. In order to provide a reference for China's biomass power planning, this paper builds a power sector-planning model using the Long-range Energy Alternatives Planning System (LEAP). The results show that in the base scenario, the installed capacity of agricultural and forestry residues, municipal solid waste and biogas will increase to 22350 MW, 21150 MW, and 4900 MW, respectively by 2030. From the point of view of total volume, biomass supply is not a constraining factor for biomass power source. However, there are some social and economic factors that impede the development of the biomass power industry, some of which may not be addressed in the short term. Therefore, the development of the biomass power industry in China is a long-term process. Some policy suggestions were proposed, including reasonable planning and more subsidies for biomass supply value chain. • An optimal power-planning model focused on bio-energy in China was developed. • Agricultural and forestry power, waste power and biogas power were all analyzed. • Social and economic factors that impede biomass power were investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]