The Quantity, Flow and Functional Zoning of Energy Resources in China
中国能源资源的数量、流动与功能分区

Along with rapid industrialization and urbanization, socio-economic development in China increasingly faces severe energy, resources and environment constraints. How to guide rational allocation of different types of energy resources among provinces and guarantee a regional sustainable supply of energy in China has become a prerequisite for sustainable development across the country. Functional zoning of energy resources has aroused great interest among researchers because of limited empirical studies on their bases, flow and functional zoning of coal, oil, natural gas, hydro, solar, wind and biomass energy resources. To fill this gap and meet the needs of sustainable of energy supply, here we quantify energy resources, discuss energy flow among different provinces and explore functional zoning of energy resources in China. From our analysis we found that the shares of the top five provinces (including autonomous regions and municipalities) of total quantity of coal, oil, natural gas, hydro, solar, wind and biomass resources are 72%, 71%, 86%, 74%, 60%, 73% and 39%, respectively. In terms of the flow of energy resources in China, large-scale transportation over long distances of coal and oil from the north to the south, and transmission of natural gas from the west to the east dominates. Coal resources can be divided into the national coal production base, regional coal production base and gathering place; crude oil can be divided into the main producing areas, replacement area and pool area; natural gas resources can be divided into the national production base, regional production base and gathering place; hydropower resource can be divided into national hydropower base, regional hydropower base and hydropower input area; solar energy resources can be divided into national solar power base, regional solar power base, and unsuitable for development area; wind power can be divided into the national wind power base, the regional wind power base and not suitable for development zones; biomass energy can be divided into large-scale development zones, development zones of small and medium-sized, not suitable for development zones.