China makes great strides in clean energy generation

In 2019, China's wind power generation capacity exceeded 400 billion kilowatt-hours for the first time. Meanwhile, China's photovoltaic power generation capacity reached 224.3 billion kilowatt-hours in 2019, a year-on-year growth of 26.3 percent.

An aerial view of the Weixin wind power farm in Pan'an County, east China's Zhejiang Province. (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

In 2019, China generated 405.7 billion kilowatt-hours of wind power, which is almost equivalent to the total energy that would be generated by four Three Gorges Hydropower Station in the same year.

While the proportion of installed and generated electricity, such as wind power and photovoltaic power generation, has increased rapidly in recent years, the utilization level of clean energy is approaching and partly exceeding the internationally recognized average level for what is thought to be reasonable.

China's wind power and photovoltaic power generation industries have continued to develop steadily. By the end of last year, China had installed 210 million kilowatt-hours of wind power, including 204 million kilowatt-hours onshore and 5.9 million kilowatt-hours offshore, accounting for 10.4 percent of the total installed capacity.

"Although the cumulative installed capacity is still concentrated in northeastern China, northern China and northwestern China, there is a clear trend that wind power installations are shifting toward the central and eastern regions of the country," said Li Qionghui, director of the new energy research department at the State Grid Energy Research Institute (SGERI).

Meanwhile, China's photovoltaic power generation capacity reached 224.3 billion kilowatt-hours in 2019, demonstrating a year-on-year growth of 26.3 percent. 

The newly installed photovoltaic power generation capacity was 30.1 million kilowatt-hours in 2019, down 31.6 percent year on year. Despite the year-on-year decline, China's new and cumulative installed photovoltaic capacity continues to maintain the world's leading position.

Moreover, China's exports of photovoltaic products reached $20.8 billion in 2019, up 29 percent year on year, according to Wang Bohua, vice-chairman of the China Photovoltaic Industry Association.