Renewable energy development in China: Spatial clustering and socio-spatial embeddedness

Purpose of review

In the past decade, China has made remarkable achievements in the development of renewable energies. This article adopts a geographical perspective for China’s current wave of renewable energy transitions, by viewing the transition outcomes through the lenses of spatial clustering and socio-spatial embeddedness.

Recent findings

We find that many renewable energy industry clusters have emerged nationwide and different patterns are uncovered for the clustering in extant literature, either through bottom-up agglomeration around pioneering enterprises, or driven by top-down government strategy and planning. There is scant research on the reconfiguration of socio-spatial arrangements, which is an important but very often neglected facet of energy transitions. We further discuss the regional disparities in China’s renewable energy development, in which resource-rich regions are mainly in the north part of China, while central, eastern, and southern regions possess substantial advantages in fostering industry clusters.

Summary

In the end, we propose two avenues for future research: firstly, to explore why different clustering patterns emerge in a certain region but not in another, and what implications these cases of clustering can draw for other regions in China or other latecomer countries; secondly, to uncover how renewable energy application and popularization shape local socio-spatial arrangements.