Research on Efficient Construction Paths for Intelligent Coal Mines in China from the Configuration Perspective

Abstract

The intelligent transformation of coal mines is an inevitable choice to promote the green transformation of energy and to achieve safety and efficiency in the industry. Exploring the path of its efficient construction is the key to realizing the construction of intelligent coal mines in China. To analyze the configuration paths for the efficient construction of intelligent coal mines, 17 typical coal-producing provinces in China were used as the research object of a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), and five conditional variables, namely research funds, technical talent, government importance degree, national demonstration, and basic resource support, were selected from four levels (technology, organization, environment, and resources) based on relevant national data from 2019–2021, and multiple configurations as well as multiple driving paths for the construction of intelligent coal mines were discussed. We found that there are three configuration paths that will enable the construction of intelligent coal mines: a technology-driven path under the government’s supervision, a path jointly driven by three-prongs, and a policy-driven path under the resource priority. The critical importance of the government is the common factor among the three driving modes. These research results can provide useful construction ideas for the construction of intelligent coal mines in different regions and enable provincial governments to carry out strategic combination actions according to local conditions to contribute to the efficient construction of intelligent coal mines and the green transformation of energy across the country.