Spatiotemporal investigation of energy network patterns of agglomeration economies in China: Province-level evidence

China is currently in the fast track of urbanization and industrialization. This poses a series of challenges pertaining to environmental issues given the resultant boom in energy consumption and carbon emissions. To tackle these problems, this study explores the effects of economic agglomerations and geographic attributes on energy transmission patterns using multi-regional input-output model, complex network analysis, and exploratory spatial data analysis. The results show that Shandong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang are the three leading regions with regard embodied energy consumption; they have distinct energy utilization models but can also provide instructive lessons for energy conservation at the provincial level. Energy interactions represent self-organizing agglomerative patterns, and the physical geographic clusters are highly consistent with the virtual administrative division of agglomeration economies. The in-depth investigation of major agglomerations has revealed that infrastructure construction remains a vital driver of local economies in developing areas, whereas more developed agglomeration economies have more balanced and service-oriented development. Bilateral connections in current major agglomeration economies have been enhanced, but multilateral connections are still rare. The findings of this study provide a bottom-up insight into the spatiotemporal effect on embodied energy system of China. •Energy interactions represented the self-organizing agglomerative patterns.•Physical geographic clusters are consistent with the agglomeration economies.•Bilateral connections are enhanced but multilateral connections are still rare.