China has become a leader in the global development of new energy, owing to rapid growth of new energies, improved industrialized level, and decreased costs for generating new energies, Economic Daily reported on Jan. 5.

China’s installed generating capacity reached 1.77 billion kilowatts by 2017, among which non-fossil energy’s capacity reached 38.1 percent, up 9.6 percent since 2012, according to China’s National Energy Administration (NEA).

Renewable energies also increased remarkably, according to NEA. For example, China’s PV installed capacity saw a year-on-year increase of 65.4 percent to hit 120 million kilowatts by late September 2017.

Meanwhile, the utilization level of new energies increased. Energy generated by renewable energies amounted to 1.17 trillion kilowatts in the first three quarters of last year. Wind power, solar energy, and biomass energy rose by 26 percent, 70 percent, and 25 percent on a year-on year basis, respectively.

Also, the costs for generating energies decreased, as China is now able to produce solar photovoltaic power generation equipment itself, said Wang Bohua, secretary-general of the China Photovoltaic Industry Association.

In addition, the wind power curtailment and solar power curtailment was estimated to respectively drop by 6.7 percent and 3.8 percent in 2017 compared with the previous year thanks to favorable policies and measures, NEA said.

Sun Qiang, a director at China Three Gorges Corporation, also said that China will take advantage of its natural advantages and focus on developing offshore wind power in the future.