Xiluodu hydroelectric power plant on Jinshajiang River, southwest China's Yunnan Province. /CFP
China's power generation capacity has increased by more than 70 percent compared to 2012, including a 700 percent increase in clean energy generators, according to a National Bureau of Statistics report on the green and low-carbon transition of the energy sector in the past decade.
In 2021, China generated 8.5 trillion kWh of electricity, up 71.1 percent from 2012, with an average annual growth of 6.1 percent, according to the report, released on Saturday.
As compared with 2012, the amount of electricity generation from wind power, solar power and other new energy sources in 2021 increased by 6.8 times, with an average annual growth rate of 25.7 percent. The new-energy-powered generation accounted for 11.5 percent of the total power generation, an increase of 9 percentage points over 2012.
In 2021, the installed power generation capacity of non-fossil energy surpassed that of coal power for the first time ever, reaching 1.12 billion kW and accounting for 47 percent of the total installed power generation capacity nationwide.
The installed capacity of hydropower, wind power and solar power in China each exceeded 300 million kW.
The share of coal in China's total energy consumption decreased by 12.5 percentage points to 56 percent in 2021 in comparison with 2012.
The share of clean energy, such as natural gas, hydropower, nuclear power and new-energy power increased significantly, while the share of natural gas rose from 4.8 percent to 8.9 percent, and the share of primary electricity and other energy rose from 9.7 percent to 16.6 percent.
In 2021, China's energy consumption per unit of GDP decreased by 26.4 percent compared with 2012, with an average annual decrease of 3.3 percent, equivalent to reducing the consumption of about 1.4 billion tonnes of standard coal.
In particular, energy consumption per unit of the added value of industrial enterprises with an annual income of more than 20 million yuan (about $2.8 million) from its main business decreased by a cumulative 36.2 percent, with an average annual decrease of 4.9 percent.