Development Feasibility of Distributed Photovoltaic Power System in Residential Area of Chinese Cities

China has stepped into the accelerating phase of urbanization since the early 1980s, which has boosted the electricity consumption and CO2 emission of the urban area. Most existing studies discussed related issues on national or regional scale from the perspective of the energy sector, but little research has focused on the scale of urban level and topics in urban development. This paper intends to utilize the approach of spatial analysis and spatial statistics to identify the potential and feasibility of Chinese cities in developing distributed photovoltaic power system (D-PVPS) for meeting household electricity demand. The result shows that most Chinese cities are feasible to develop the D-PVPS which can totally cover the present household electricity consumption in residential area, based on the estimation carried out in this paper. Some of the rest cities are also suitable to develop the D-PVPS in the visible future when photoelectric ratio enhances. Finally, policy implications and suggestions are raised to promote the much broader D-PVPS application in Chinese cities under the background of future urbanization.