China Energy Outlook 2020 - Flipbook - Page 36
Energy Consumption by Fuel
China’s buildings, transport, industry, and other end-use sectors predominantly rely on fossil
fuels for primary energy (including electricity from coal- and natural gas-fired power plants),
with this reliance dropping slightly over the years from 99% in 1980 to 94% in 2018. Figure 1-16
shows that of these fossil fuels, coal dominates with a current share of 64%, followed by
petroleum (21%), and natural gas (9%).
The use of coal and coking products for production of thermal power soared between 1980 and
2017, increasing from 27% to 48%. The industrial sector is the second largest coal-user in China,
after thermal power, and accounted for 40% of total coal and coking products used in 2017.
About 7% of total coal and coking products was used for heating supply in 2017. The share of
coal decreased significantly in the buildings sector in China, dropping from 23% in 1980 to 5% in
Natural Gas End Uses
2017.
Transport
11%
Heating
Supply
4%
Thermal
Power
16%
Buildings
23%
Industry
46%
Petroleum End Uses
Heating
Supply
1%
Buildings
20%
Industry
37%
Transport
39%
Coal End Uses
China's Energy Consumption by Fuel (2017-2018) (Mtce)
Primary Electricity
Natural gas
Petroleum
Coal
Total
2017
229
314
844
2,712
544
2018
255
370
899
2,740
624
% Change
11%
18%
7%
1%
14.9%
Thermal
Power
0%
Heating
Supply
7%
Buildings
5%
Industry
39%
Agriculture
1%
Thermal
Power
48%
Figure 1-16. China’s Primary Energy Consumption by Fuel (1980-2018) and by End Use Sector (2017)
Sources: China Energy Group, 2016; NBS, various years (b).
Notes: 1) Coal includes both direct use of coal and use of coking products, e.g., coke and coke oven gas. 2) Primary
electricity includes hydro, solar, wind, geothermal and nuclear power. Primary electricity consumption in physical
units is converted to standardized energy units based on the Direct Equivalent method. Note that primary
electricity growth between 2017 and 2018 using China’s Power Plant Coal Consumption method was 10.3% and
total primary energy growth was 3.3%. 3) Construction sector is included in industrial sector; agriculture sector is
also included in industry for natural gas end-use shares. 4) For petroleum end-use shares, figures are reported on
an unadjusted basis based on official energy accounting practices in China. 5) Natural gas end-use consumption
includes both natural gas and LNG.
22
Agriculture
3%
Transport
0%