Electricity production, power generation structure, and air pollution: A monthly data analysis for 279 cities in China (2015–2019)

Advancing the clean transition of energy structure and reducing air pollution levels are important actions for achieving sustainable urban development. In this study, we analyze the impact of power production and structure on urban air pollution by analyzing the monthly power generation data of 14,570 power plants in 279 prefecture-level cities from January 2015 to December 2019. These data were matched with social, economic, and resource panel data. The study confirmed the positive impact of the increasing proportion of renewable energy on air pollution mitigation, especially when the proportion of renewable power supply exceeds 28.22%. This positive impact has a significant spatial spillover effect, with more air quality improvement seen in East, Central, Southwest, and Northwest China. By designing installation development scenarios for renewable energy, this paper projects the air pollution in major regions of China in 2030. The projection indicates that the PM2.5 concentration in each region could be lower than 35 μg/m3, but the overall proportion of photoelectric and wind power in the primary energy supply remains small. This highlights the need to increase the mitigation of urban air pollution further, by stimulating the innovation of power generation technology, improving power generation efficiency, and encouraging the large-scale development of renewable energy.