China’s total renewable power capacity rose 9.5 per cent to 750 gigawatts (GW) in the year to June amid Beijing’s push to boost clean energy consumption as part of its anti-pollution campaign.
The country added 1.82GW of hydropower capacity, 9.09GW of wind capacity and 11.4GW of solar capacity in the first six months of this year, the National Energy Administration (NEA) said at a news briefing reported by Reuters Newsagency.
As of June, China had total hydropower capacity of around 354GW, total wind capacity of 193GW and solar capacity of 186GW, the NEA said.
The increasing capacity has pushed electricity generated from renewable sources to 887.9 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) in the first half of 2019, up 14 per cent on the year.
Reuters reports China has been trying to take action against a problem known in the industry as “curtailment”, in which a renewable energy plant is unable to operate at full capacity because of oversupply or transmission failings.
“The issue of power being wasted is continually improving as the government actively adopts measures to encourage consumption of renewable energy,” said Li Chuangjun, deputy director of the renewable energy department at the NEA at the briefing.
Average wind curtailment rates were lowered by four percentage points to 4.7 per cent in the first half of this year and solar curtailment rates fell 1.2 percentage points to 2.4 per cent.
The NEA also said power consumption was slowing in China amid an upgrade of its industrial structure.
“It is an inevitable trend for China to shift to a mid-speed increase in electricity consumption from high-speed growth,” said Li Fulong, head of the development and planning office of the NEA.
In the January to June period, power consumption in industrial sectors accounted for 68 per cent of total use in the country, down 1.2 percentage points from the same period of last year, according to the NEA.
EcoNews is an independent publication that relies on contributions from its readers.
WE’RE BUILDING A PLATFORM WITH A CLEAR FOCUS ON THE ENVIRONMENT, CULTURAL AND SOCIAL GOOD. CONTRIBUTE AND TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE AN IMPACT.
