Renewable power wastage declined during Jan-Sept: NEA
BEIJING – China wasted less renewable power in the first nine months of the year, data from the National Energy Administration (NEA) showed, the latest sign that Beijing’s efforts to improve efficiency in its wind and solar sectors are paying off.
From January to September, the curtailment for wind power across China dropped 6.7 percentage points from the same period last year to 12 percent, while wasted solar power fell 3.8 percentage points from a year ago to 5.6 percent, the data showed on Tuesday.
Despite some improvement, the amount of electricity that failed to connect to the grid remains significant in the western parts of the country, with almost a quarter of solar and a third of wind power lost in Gansu province.
The government has set targets for the amount of renewable power that should reach the grid to resolve the problem of energy going to waste, one of the country’s biggest challenges in its clean energy campaign.
Last month, the NEA said it hopes to solve the issue by 2020.
Installed renewable power capacity reached 630 gigawatts (GW) by the end of September, with hydropower capacity at 339 GW, wind power at 157 GW, solar power at 120 GW and biomass energy at 14.23 GW, the NEA data showed.
China produced 1.17 trillion kilowatt hours of electricity from renewable energy, accounting for 25 percent of its power mix in the first three quarters.
“Renewable energy has become the main force of China’s new electricity,” said Li Chuangjun, deputy director of the renewable energy department at the NEA, in a separate statement on Tuesday.
Source: Reuters
