More renewable energy generated in China in Q1

Installed capacity of clean power sources in China keeps expanding with utilization further optimized during the first quarter of 2019, according to the National Energy Administration.

Renewable energy sources generated 388.5 billion kilowatts in the first three months of this year, up 13 percent year-on-year. It accounted for 23.2 percent of the total generating capacity, increasing 1.2 percentage points compared with the same period of the previous year, according to a press release by the administration held in Beijing on Monday.

Hydropower generated 215.9 billion kilowatts, up 12 percent year-on-year, followed by wind power with 104.1 billion kilowatts, which rose 6.3 percent year-on-year, and solar power with 44 billion kilowatts, an increase of 26 percent year-on-year.

Biomass power generation also rose 16.7 percent compared with the same period in 2018 to 24.5 billion kilowatts, according to Liang Zhipeng, deputy director of the new energy and renewable energy department at the National Energy Administration.

Liang said the country's grid operators and power companies have applied effective operation management measures for the optimization of renewable energy and have eased the curtailment, or power waste, for hydropower, wind power and solar power.