China's power generation grows faster in December

BEIJING - China's power generation saw faster growth in December than November, with electricity from most clean energy sources expanding at a rapid pace, official data showed Thursday.

Last month, power production rose 6 percent, faster than 2.4 percent for November, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on its website.

The bureau attributed the faster production growth to lower temperatures and the policy to substitute the use of coal in winter heating with electricity.

The average temperature last month was 1.9 degrees Celsius lower than December 2016, the NBS said.

Electricity from hydropower plants rose 14 percent, up 5.3 percentage points from November. Wind and solar power production surged 25.7 percent and 46.8 percent, respectively.

In 2017, power generation rose 5.7 percent to 6.3 trillion kWh.