Qinghai starts 9-day clean energy power supply project

XINING -- Northwest China's Qinghai province on Wednesday initiated a nine-day clean energy power supply project following a successful seven-day trial last year.

The province plans to only use green energy sources to generate electricity from June 20 to 28 to promote the use of clean energy.

Qinghai is the source of China's three major rivers, the Yellow, Yangtze and Lancang, and has strong hydro and solar-power facilities to serve the province's 5.8 million people

Last year, from June 17 to 23, the province ran entirely on wind, solar, and hydro power.

During that period, hydro power plants supplied 72.3 percent of the electricity, with new energy sources such as wind and solar supplying the remainder.

"This year, Qinghai's electric grid will be expanded, with an installed capacity of 26.4 million kilowatts, up 13 percent from last year," said Qi Taiyuan, general manager of the State Grid Qinghai Electric Power Company.

The daily electricity generated by new energy sources during the nine-day period is expected to reach 53 million kilowatt hours, up 40 percent from last year, said Qi.

According to the provincial 13th five-year plan, Qinghai will expand its solar and wind capacity to 35 million kilowatts by 2020 and supply 110 billion kilowatt hours of clean electricity every year to central and eastern parts of China, preventing the burning of 50 million tonnes of coal.

China's enthusiasm for clean energy is pushing the world to transition toward a low-carbon future, with plans to invest 2.5 trillion yuan ($370 billion) in renewable energy by 2020, creating more than 13 million jobs, according to the National Energy Administration.

The country's total installed renewable energy capacity reached 650 million kilowatts in 2017, up 14 percent from 2016. Clean energy generated 1.7 trillion kilowatt hours of electricity last year, accounting for 26.4 percent of the country's total.