Promotion Potentiality and Optimal Strategies Analysis of Provincial Energy Efficiency in China

In order to meet the dual requirements of economic development and energy consumption, the Chinese government has adopted a series of measures and policies to improve energy efficiency. However, the developing characteristics are not the same in different regions. Thus, it is necessary to analyze the actual energy efficiency levels in a more targeted manner. In this paper, 30 provinces in China will be adopted to study energy efficiency based on the statistical data from National Energy Administration and National Bureau of Statistics. With the trends of Chinese energy consumption and economy development, the Lorenz curve between Chinese energy consumption and GDP is fitted firstly. The Lorenz coefficient (0.1562) shows that the energy allocation in China is neither reasonable nor balanced. Then, by cluster analysis, the regions of different provinces are newly divided into five divisions from the dimensions of economy and energy, i.e., (high development level and high consumption level, HH), (moderate development level and moderate consumption level, MM), (moderate development level and low consumption level, ML), (low development level and low consumption level, LL), and (low development level and moderate consumption level, LM). Based on the division results, the provincial promotion potentialities are estimated quantitatively according to the absolute convergence feature of energy efficiency promotion. The provinces that have more promotion potentialities of energy efficiency are located, such as Hebei (56.29%) in division (HH), Liaoning (38.15%) in division (MM), Anhui (44.17%) in division (ML), Ningxia (71.63%) in division (LL), and Xinjiang (35.26%) in division (LM), According to the different provincial potentialities, energy efficiency in China needs to improve more, but the improvement approaches should be specific and differential. Driven by technology, policy and mechanism, and industrial restructuring, the Chinese economy and energy resources should be integrated afresh to promote the energy efficiency level. Some optimal strategies on energy efficiency promotion are discussed, finally, aiming to provide effective references for the Chinese government to make relative policies. The study proposes a new perspective for provincial energy efficiency research which can also provide a reference for other countries