Research into the Spatiotemporal Characteristics and Influencing Factors of Technological Innovation in China's Natural Gas Industry from the Perspective of Energy Transition

Promoting technological innovation in the natural gas industry is a feasible means of achieving energy transition. Guided by the geographic innovation theory, this article carries out research on the scale, technical fields, capabilities, and influencing factors of technological innovation in the natural gas industry of 312 Chinese prefecture-level cities, making use of the cusp catastrophe model, the center of gravity and standard deviational ellipse, exploratory spatial data analysis, and geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR). The research shows the following: (1) Technological innovation in China's natural gas industry has continuously expanded in terms of scale, with the number of participating cities increasing, showing a spatially uneven pattern of local agglomeration and national diffusion. (2) There have been significant innovation achievements in natural gas equipment and engineering, but natural gas utilization is lagging in comparison, with drilling, new materials, environmental protection, pipe network engineering, and digital services becoming frontier fields, and collaborative innovation with the thermoelectric, metalworking, automotive, and other related industries having been initially established. (3) The unevenness of technological innovation capabilities is obvious, with the core advantages of Beijing-Tianjin being continuously strengthened and Sichuan-Chongqing, the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, Shandong Peninsula, and Liaodong Peninsula forming high-level technological innovation capability agglomerations. (4) The spatiotemporal pattern of technological innovation capability is the result of multiple factors, with northeastern cities mainly being affected by natural gas demands, northwestern cities being highly sensitive to capital strength, eastern cities mostly relying on urban development, and cities in North China mainly being bolstered by the strength of talent. (5) It is necessary to carry out further multi-agent and multi-scale future research on technological innovation in the natural gas industry and its relationship with the energy transition and to explore the interactivity of the influencing factors. This study may provide strategies for technological innovation in the natural gas industry from the perspective of the energy transition.

Automated summary

Promoting technological innovation in the natural gas industry is crucial for energy transition. This study investigates the scale, technical fields, capabilities, and influencing factors of technological innovation in the industry across 312 Chinese cities. The findings reveal an uneven spatial pattern of innovation, with significant achievements in natural gas equipment and engineering. However, there is a lag in natural gas utilization, and collaborative innovation with related industries is still in the early stages. Unevenness in innovation capabilities is observed, with certain regions forming high-level innovation agglomerations. Factors such as demand, capital strength, urban development, and talent play a role in shaping the spatiotemporal pattern of innovation capabilities.