Clean energy accounts for half of China's installed capacity

BEIJING -- China's installed clean energy power generation capacity increased to 1.08 billion kW by the end of 2020, accounting for nearly half of the country's total installed power generation capacity, according to the People's Daily on Thursday.

A report on national renewable energy power development was recently released by the National Energy Administration, noting that China's actual consumption of electricity from renewable sources was more than 2.16 trillion kWh in 2020, accounting for 28.8 percent of its total electricity consumption and up 1.3 percentage points year-on-year.

The average national utilization rates of wind power and photovoltaic power generation in 2020 were 97 percent and 98 percent, respectively. In major river basins, the water energy utilization rate was 97 percent.

Nonfossil energy accounted for 15.9 percent of China's primary energy consumption in 2020, the world average, while coal consumption dropped to 56.8 percent, administration head Zhang Jianhua was quoted as saying by the People's Daily.

China has been boosting green and low-carbon energy development, said Zhang. The intensity of carbon emissions had been reduced by 48.4 percent from 2005 to 2020.