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Energy Procedia 88 (2016) 88 – 93

CUE2015-Applied Energy Symposium and Summit 2015: Low carbon cities and urban
energy systems

Evolution of China’s urban energy consumption structure—a

case study in Beijing
Jiahong Liua,b , Silan Chen a,Hao Wang a,b, Pietro Elia Campana c, Jinyue Yan c,d
a State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, China Institute of Water Resources and
Hydropower Research, Beijing 100038, China
b Engineering and Technology Research Center for Water resources and Hydroecology of the Ministry of Water Resources, Beijing
100038, China
c School of Business, Society & Engineering, Mälardalen University, SE-72123 Västerås, Sweden
d School of Chemical Science, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SE-10044 Stockholm, Sweden

Abstract

China is a coal-based energy consuming country. The proportion of coal is up to 70% in the energy
consumption structure in 1990s. In the past 20 years, driven by energy saving policy, China's energy
consumption structure has undergone great changes, especially in urban areas. This paper explores the
evolution of energy-use structure at the national level and the level of Beijing City in China. Four major
energy sources were considered, including coal, oil, natural gas and electricity. The dataset was collected
from 1990 to 2012. The results show that the proportion of coal consumption decreased by approximately
20% from 1990 to 2012 at the national level in compare with nearly 50% at the level of Beijing City.
Furthermore, the proportion of natural gas consumption and other clean energies rose. In Beijing the
natural gas and other clean energies account for over 60% of the total energy in 2012, which played an
important role in improving the local environment.
© 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
© 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of CUE
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of CUE 2015
Keyword: Eenrgy consumption structure, urban area, evolution analysis, Beijing

1. Introduction

Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 10 68781936.
E-mail address: liujh@iwhr.com (J H. Liu).

1876-6102 © 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of CUE 2015
doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2016.06.029
 Jiahong Liu et al. / Energy Procedia 88 (2016) 88 – 93 89

Energy is an important component of a country's economic growth and social development [1-2].
However, global climate change caused by excessive carbon emissions is a widespread concern in the
international community. Developing countries, rely on industrial, production-based economic growth,
with high energy consumption rates and carbon emissions. In this context, optimizing energy
consumption structure is an important component of economic development.
esearchers have studied on a wide scope of urban energy consumption and urban carbon emissions [3-
6]. There is a rapid increase in urban energy consumption, and many researchers explored the method to
reduce urban energy consumption [7-8]. Other researchers tried to figure out the factors that influence the
urban energy consumption [9-12]. Also, researches on effect of energy consumption on urban heat islands
have been carried out [13]. As for urban carbon emissions, researchers have done some great researches
in urban scale[14-19] . And they also tried to find some methods to reduce carbon emissions [20].
China, the world's largest developing country, is undergoing rapid economic development and annual
increases in energy consumption. The pressure from environment and demand from industry development
and others on energy supply, energy efficiency, industrial structure and other aspects of energy
consumption make optimizing the country’s energy consumption structure an important issue in China's
energy strategy [21].
Over all, urban energy consumption is a primary driver in total energy consumption and continues to
increase in response to the expansion of urbanization. However, recent trends in urban development
indicate that the proportion of energy consumed by the industry sector is declining. In addition, CO2
emissions have been mitigated to such an extent that the release of SO2 from coal consumption has
become the main source of pollution in many areas. Urban environmental management measures have
also helped decrease the proportion of coal consumption in the city. With the development of
urbanization and improvement of living standards, petroleum, natural gas and electricity will gradually
replace coal. There are apparent regional differences in Chinese urban energy consumption [22].
China's energy consumption and energy consumption structure have been studied from different angles,
different scales, and over time [9][22]. Weihua Guan et al. established a dynamic model of China's energy
consumption to help predict future changes to its structure[14]. The model suggests that the proportion of
coal consumption will gradually decline, while consumption of oil, natural gas, and water as energy
sources will rise. Of the latter, oil consumption will increase at a greater rate than other sources.
Researchers have also analyzed and forecasted future carbon emissions from energy consumption [15-16].
However, the influence of the evolution of urban energy structure on carbon emissions has not been
thoroughly reviewed. This case study provides insight on the role of Beijing’s energy consumption in
carbon emissions as a model of China’s overall urban energy structure.

2. Analysis of the evolution of energy consumption in China

2.1. China energy consumption structure

Changes in China’s energy consumption structure from 1990 to 2012 are shown in Figure. 1.
In the 1980s, coal was the main source of energy in China. The proportion of coal-powered energy
consumption increased to 75% in the 1990’s. After the 21st century, however, the proportion of
petroleum, natural gas, and other energy sources, such as wind power, hydropower, and nuclear power,
began to rise. Coal was still the main source of energy, but its share in energy consumption structure fell.
In fact, the proportion of coal consumption decreased to 68% in 2010.
Recent changes to China’s energy structure reflect the country’s efforts to adopt an eco-friendly approach
to development, including advancement of new, clean energy industries such as nuclear power, wind
power, and solar energy. These kinds of structural adjustments and power conversions associated with
90 Jiahong Liu et al. / Energy Procedia 88 (2016) 88 – 93

China’s economic growth can lead to optimization of the country’s energy structure and increased energy
efficiency.

Fig. 1 Changes in China’s energy consumption structure, 1990 -2012

3. Analysis of the evolution of energy consumption in Beijing

3.1. Beijing’s energy consumption structure

Six years representative of the city’s consumption from 1990 to 2012 were selected based on data
provided in the "Beijing Statistical Yearbook.” The proportion of coal, natural gas, electricity, petroleum,
and renewable energy consumption for those six years was calculated and energy consumption structures
for each year were determined as shown in Figure. 2.
As shown in Figure. 2, coal was Beijing's main energy source in 1990, accounting for 67.28% of total
energy consumption. In the late 1990s, Beijing implemented restrictive measures for coal consumption to
address serious air pollution issues. As a result, big stoves, small boilers, and small coal-burning stoves
were replaced with cleaner technologies, such as electric stoves.. Beijing also developed rigorous
environmental remediation measures for the energy industry. Industrial plants and thermal power plants
with high-energy consumption and pollution rates were closed or moved out of Beijing to Hebei Province
and other provinces, and the consumption of coal and coke was restricted. At this time, electricity began
to replace coal as the primary energy source.
Beijing's 11th five-year plan was developed to optimize energy production and consumption, and build
a stable, economical, clean, and safe energy supply system. Beijing began promoting low-carbon energy
sources and implementing strict control of coal consumption in order to enhance the level of use of
natural gas, electricity, and renewable energy. Beijing strictly limited the use of burning coal in the city
and carried out a renovation project on three coal-fired power plants and 63 coal-fired boilers [23]. These
measures helped reduce the proportion of coal consumption in Beijing to 19.57% in 2012.
At the same time, natural gas consumption rose from 0.43% in 1990 to 14.78% in 2012 and began to
replace coal as the primary heat source in Beijing. In this era of rapid economic and social development,
Beijing also experienced significant growth in electricity consumption. The proportion of electricity in
 Jiahong Liu et al. / Energy Procedia 88 (2016) 88 – 93 91

total energy consumption rose from 23.73% in 1990 to 42.62% in 2012. Beijing’s petroleum
consumption, on a national level, is relatively high compared with other cities in China. The proportion of
petroleum consumption in Beijing’s total energy consumption rose from 8.48% in 1990 to 19.05% in
2012. Since 2000, Beijing has vigorously promoted the development of renewable energy and developed
the appropriate policies to encourage development and utilization of solar, geothermal, wind and biomass
energy. In 2012, the proportion of renewable energy consumption in Beijing increased to 4%.

Fig. 2 Beijing’s energy consumption structure, 1990-2012

4. Discussion and Conclusion

This paper studied the changes in Beijing’s coal, natural gas, electricity, and oil consumption using data
from 1990 to 2012, and analyzed the city’s energy consumption structure during these years. According
to the results, energy consumption in Beijing from 1990 to 2012 began to optimize, and the proportion of
coal as an energy source decreased significantly from 67.28% in 1990 to 19.57% in 2012. At the same
time, the proportion of natural gas and other clean energy sources rose considerably. In addition,
economic and social development, and the improvement of living standards caused electricity to become
a primary energy source in Beijing. The proportion of electricity consumption in total energy
consumption reached 42.62% in 2012.
As a developing country, economic growth is necessary for development of the country’s basic needs
and energy is a required for economic growth. To a certain extent, energy consumption also reflects the
strength of a country's economic activities and its capacity to meet the needs of its citizens. Therefore,
increased pressure on the environment is difficult to avoid. The current development of China's energy
conservation policy should not control the size of economic output, but should focus on optimizing
energy structure and improving energy efficiency.
Possible policies include plans to support nuclear power, wind energy, hydropower, solar energy and
biomass projects, and maintain the proportion of non-fossil fuel energy sources. Among fossil fuel energy
sources, relatively low-carbon natural gas haven’t been China's primary energy source and exhibit low
proportion (less than 3%) long-term. Promoting the development of the natural gas industry in China is
92 Jiahong Liu et al. / Energy Procedia 88 (2016) 88 – 93

therefore a problem worthy of attention. Adjustments to industrial and international trade policies can
help address this issue.
In the case of continued growth in energy consumption where adjustments to industrial and energy
structure have been exhausted, improving energy efficiency will be the next most important step toward
energy conservation.

Acknowledgement

This research work is funded by the Chinese National Natural Science Foundation (No. 51522907, No.
51279208 & No. 51409275). The study was also supported by the Open Research Fund of the State Key
Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, China Institute of Water
Resources and Hydropower Research.

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