BEIJING (CHINA DAILY/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - By the end of 2018, China's installed capacity for renewable energy reached 728,000 megawatts (MW), up 12 per cent on a year-on-year basis. It took up 38.3 per cent of the total installed capacity, growing 1.7 percentage points year on year, demonstrating that the alternative role of renewable energy has become increasingly important.

The data were released on Monday (Jan 28) during a media briefing held by the National Energy Administration (NEA). The installed capacity of hydropower stations, wind power stations, photovoltaic (solar) power stations and biomass power stations in 2018 reached 352,000 MW, 184,000 MW, 174,000 MW, and 17,810 MW respectively, growing 2.5 per cent, 12.4 per cent, 34 per cent and 20.7 per cent year on year.

"The utilisation rate of renewable energy is constantly going up," said Li Chuangjun, deputy director of the new energy department of the NEA.

According to the NEA, in 2018, power generated by renewable energy totalled 1.87 trillion kilowatt-hours, 170 billion kwh higher than the previous year. Renewable energy generated 26.7 per cent of the total power, up 0.2 percentage point year on year.

Hydropower generation grew by 3.2 per cent year on year to 1.2 trillion kwh, and wind power generation surged 20 per cent to 366 billion kwh. Meanwhile, photovoltaic power and biomass power generation reached 177.5 billion kwh and 90.6 billion kwh, growing 50 per cent and 14 per cent year on year respectively.

Also, as revealed by the NEA, in 2018, the national average hydropower utilisation rate was around 95 per cent.

"Ever since the government introduced guidelines on renewable energy consumption, large electricity companies such as the State Grid Corp, the China Southern Power Grid, and the Inner Mongolia Power (Group) Co, have been continuously improving system adjustment capabilities, and optimising operations, so that the utilisation rate of renewable energy grew significantly, and the situation of hydropower, wind power and power curtailment has eased to a large extent," Li said.

On Jan 15, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration jointly launched a guideline on China's clean energy consumption from 2018 to 2020, with a goal of achieving significant results in clean energy consumption in 2018, and basically solving the problem of clean energy consumption by 2020.

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According to the guideline, by 2018, China's wind power utilisation rate should be higher than 88 per cent, while photovoltaic power and hydropower utilisation should both surpass 95 per cent.

By 2019, wind power utilisation rate should surpass 90 per cent, the utilisation rates of both photovoltaic and hydropower should be over 95 per cent.

Furthermore, the nation aims at raising both its wind power and hydropower utilisation rates to 95 per cent.