China Consumes More Clean Energy

China consumed 615.5 billion kilowatt-hours (kwh) of electricity generated by clean energy sources in the first eight months of the year, according to statistics from the State Electricity Regulatory Commission.

The figure accounted for 19.3 percent of the country's total on-grid power during the period, an increase of 1.1 percentage points from the same period last year, the commission said.

In breakdown, electricity produced from hydropower, wind power and nuclear power expanded 20.6 percent, 32.4 percent and 10.5 percent, respectively, to 489 billion kwh, 63.5 billion kwh and 63.3 billion kwh during the January-August period.

As of the end of August, China's hydropower generation capacity rose 6.7 percent year on year to 203.83 million kilowatts, while wind and nuclear power generation capacity added 37.2 percent and 5.6 percent, respectively, to 54.37 million kilowatts and 12.57 million kilowatts.

To meet the target of cutting energy use per unit of GDP by 16 percent by 2015 from the level in 2011, China has taken a slew of measures, including increasing investments in clean energy, to boost the share of non-fossil fuels in its power structure.