• Energy Research

To reduce gasoline consumption and emissions, the Chinese government has introduced a series of preferential policies to encourage the purchase of new energy vehicles (NEVs). However, enthusiasm for the private purchase of NEVs appears to be very low. This timely paper addresses the need for an empirical study to explore this phenomenon by identifying purchase motivations of potential NEV consumers and examining the impact of government policies introduced to promote NEVs in China. A questionnaire survey was carried out. The acceptance of NEVs is measured in three different logistic models: the willingness of consumers to purchase NEVs, the purchasing time, and the acceptable price. The results showed that financial benefits, performance attributes, environmental awareness and psychological needs are the four most important factors influencing consumers’ acceptance of NEVs. Among these, performance attributes rather than financial benefits are the most important indicator. The moderating effect of government policies to relations between purchasing intention, time and price is not strong as respected while the policy implications are clear that the ‘public awareness of government policy’ functions as a moderator in the process of acceptance. These findings could give some hints to the government to make better NEV industry policy.

This study evaluates the efficiency advantage of a market-based emission permit trading policy instrument over a command and control policy instrument in the case of China's thermal power industry. We estimate the unrealized gains achievable through emission permit trading with an optimization frontier analysis. These unrealized gains include potential recoveries of electricity generation through eliminating spatial and temporal regulatory rigidity on emission permit trading. The results of an ex post estimation during 2006 and 2010 indicate a potential gain of 8.48% increase in electricity generation if both the intra- and inter-period regulatory rigidities on CO2 emission permits trading had been eliminated. In addition, if the permit trading systems for three air pollutions, CO2, SO2, and NOx, had been completely integrated, a positive net synergy effect of 1.43% increase in electricity generation could have been secured. The unrealized gains identified in this study provide supports for establishing a nationwide emission permit trading system in China.

Abstract Eco-efficiency has been receiving increasing attention across the world. This paper proposes an extended data envelopment analysis model, which combines global benchmark technology, directional distance function and a bootstrapping approach to investigate the dynamic trends of regional eco-efficiency in China from 2003 to 2014. Moreover, a developed slacks-based measure is utilized to decompose the performance fluctuations into resource, environmental and economic efficiency. Then, the key factors responsible for the changes in eco-efficiency are explored using the global Malmquist–Luenberger index. The empirical results demonstrate an upward trend of eco-efficiency in China. During the study period this trend was high in eastern and northern areas but low in northwestern areas. However, it should be noted that some eco-efficient regions still consume much land, water and energy and emit much environmental pollutants in absolute terms. The whole of China performs well on the economic front, while resource and environmental performances are not encouraging, particularly on environmental efficiency. The eastern and northern regions have experienced the greatest advances in both resource and environmental efficiency, while the undeveloped areas have not shown much progress, which further widens the gaps between developed areas and undeveloped areas. The decomposition of productivity growth indicates that technical progress is the decisive factor in promoting China's eco-efficiency, while decreasing management level is the major obstacle hampering the improvement in eco-efficiency.

Abstract The success of a new technology (like carbon capture and storage (CCS)) not only depends on sound technical and engineering practice but also involves societal, political and economic factors. High public acceptance is viewed as one of the critical factors. To date, there has been little systematic research into public communication and engagement in regard to CCS in China. A national survey on public perception (but biased towards the views of the educated elite of the Chinese population) of CCS technology was conducted from July 2013 to December 2013. The objectives of the survey were to assess the following issues: public understanding of the climate sciences, society’s knowledge and acceptance of low emission technologies (especially of CCS technology), public interests and concerns about the positive and negative impacts of CCS technology, and public attitudes towards CCS policies supported by the government. Finally, high-level suggestions for mechanisms to raise public understanding and frame the social acceptance on CCS technology in China are proposed based on a SWOT analysis.

Carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technology is critical to global net-zero emission goal, whereas actual deployment is well below expectations. This study constructs a comprehensive framework, integrating nonlinear dynamic optimization, real option and technology learning curve, to explore optimal CCUS deployment for China's coal-fired power plant toward carbon neutrality. The commercialization application will occur in 2030-2035, with the optimal potential ranging between 248.54 GW and 564.90 GW. East China has the greatest potential, reaching 196.85 GW, followed by North China with the potential of 116.29 GW. The cost of second-generation capture technology will decrease from 219 CNY/ton CO2 to 165 CNY/ton CO2 during 2030-2031.The annual corporate expenditure (R&D investment and capture cost) and government expenditure (subsidy) will peak at 23.92 billion CNY in 2035 and 63.71 billion CNY in 2044, respectively. The financial burden can be lessened by carbon trading market and third-party intervention in the later period.

Climate change-induced coal-fired plant generation efficiency reduction tends to cut power supply by 15.77 billion kWh/year in the 2050s under RCP8.5. The challenges could be more evident if factoring in the rapidly increasing power demand.

Abstract Evaluation of the energy and emissions efficiency of Chinese regions has recently attracted increasing interest. A number of previous studies have contributed to the measurement of energy efficiency using various types of data envelopment analysis (DEA) techniques. However, most of these DEA-based energy efficiency analyses were restricted to the radial expansions of outputs or radial contractions of inputs. In this paper, we utilize the multi-directional efficiency analysis (MEA) approach instead of the traditional radial DEA to investigate Chinese regional energy and emissions efficiency. Since MEA selects benchmarks such that the input contractions or output expansions are proportional to the potential improvement identified by considering the improvement potential in each input or output variable separately, not just the efficiency status but also the efficiency patterns of different Chinese regions and areas can be detected. The empirical study results indicate that, in general, the MEA efficiency of China experienced an increasing process over the study period 1997–2010; the east area overall is more MEA efficient than the central area and the west area of China during the study period; the significant higher MEA efficiency of the east area to the central area and the west area are due to both the higher energy specific efficiency and the higher emissions specific efficiency of the east area compared to the other two areas; the provinces of Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Shandong, Henan, and Hubei etc. have both high energy saving potentials and high emissions reduction potentials, thus they will play the most important roles in China’s effort on energy conservation and CO 2 emissions mitigation.

Abstract Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) is regarded as an important option to reduce the CO2 emission of the electricity industry, especially in China. But emissions reduction potential of CCUS within each special administrative region needs to be identified. We explored the near-term CO2 storage potential of coal-fired power plants in China from the county perspective. According to the results of emissions sources and storage sites within counties, the following findings were reached: 1) Coal-fired power plants are distributed in 441 counties, the oil fields are in 149 counties, and the deep saline aquifers are in 561 counties. The spatial distribution of storage sites and coal-fired power plants is not consistent across counties. 2) Considering the injection capacity of single well, the CO2 storage potential decreased by more than 50%. Thirty counties have emission reduction potential through CCUS, with a total of 99.01Mt/y. 3) The CCUS emission reduction of counties in the top five provinces accounts for 83.9% of the total. Hebei, Xinjiang, Tianjin, Jiangsu, and Anhui provinces can be regarded as demonstration provinces for near term project deployment.