Wind turbines Photo: VCG

The total capacity of China's wind turbines and photovoltaic panels reached 820 million kilowatts by the end of April, data from National Energy Administration (NEA) showed, a progress of the country's energy structure optimization for achieving carbon emission reduction goal.

The capacity of wind turbine reached 380 million kilowatts and the photovoltaic panels reached 440 million kilowatts, making the total capacity to 820 kilowatts, which accounted for 30.9 percent of national power generator capacity.

In the first four months of 2023, China added 62.51 million kilowatts of wind turbines and photovoltaic panels, accounted for 74 percent of nationwide newly-added power generation capacity, 11.5 percentage points over the level in 2022.

China generated 482.8 billion kilowatt-hours of wind and photovoltaic power from January to April 2023, surged by 26.8 percent year-on-year, and accounted for 17.2 percent of social electricity consumption, up three percentage points over last year.

China has been ramping up the utility of renewable energy since the 2023. In the first quarter, the new-added capacity of renewable power generator reached 47.4 million, also included hydropower plant and biomass power plant aside from wind turbine and photovoltaic panel, up 86.5 percent year-on-year, accounted for 80.3 percent of the overall new-added capacity, NEA unveiled in a press conference held on April 27.

NEA also announced on the press conference that authorities encourage enterprises to build photovoltaic power base in desert and gobi area and pledged to provide supports to secure the land for construction. At present, the first batch of photovoltaic power base with capacity of 97.05 million kilowatts has start construction.

Global Times