From January to August, 72.54 million kilowatts of new power production capacity were added (officially put into operation), 9.13 million kilowatts less than that of the same period last year, a year-on-year decrease of 11.2 percent. Hydropower was 5.76 million kw, 2.07 million kw less than that of the same period last year, down 26.4% year on year. Thermal power of 21.18 million kw, 4.7 million KW less than that of the same period of last year, down 18.2% year on year; Nuclear power increased by 2.21 million kilowatts, or 1.13 million kilowatts more than in the same period last year. Wind power reached 10.26 million kilowatts, 1.67 million kilowatts more than the same period of last year, up 19.4% year on year; Solar power generation was 33.03 million kilowatts, 5.25 million kilowatts less than that of the same period last year, down 13.7 percent year-on-year.
Figure 1 Changes in investment growth rate of renewable energy power generation since 2016
From January to August, the proportion of new nuclear and wind power installations increased. Hydropower accounted for 7.9% of the total installed capacity, down 1.6 percentage points from a year earlier. The installed capacity of new thermal power plants accounted for 29.2%, down 2.5 percentage points from the same period last year. New nuclear power installations accounted for 3.1%, an increase of 1.7 percentage points over the same period last year. New wind power accounted for 14.2%, up 3.6 percentage points from a year earlier. New solar power installations accounted for 45.6%, down 1.3 percentage points from the same period last year.
FIG. 2 Proportion of new installed capacity types in China from January to August 2018
From January to August 2018, China's new installed capacity was mainly concentrated in Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan, Shanxi, Zhejiang, Shandong and Hebei (all over 4.3 million kw), accounting for 48.4 percent of the total new installed capacity.
The new installed capacity is mainly solar power generation, accounting for 45.5%. The new installed capacity of solar power generation is mainly distributed in Jiangsu, Shandong, Zhejiang, Hebei, Anhui, Henan and other provinces (the new installed capacity is over 2.6 million kw).
The newly installed thermal power capacity accounts for 29.2%, mainly distributed in Tianjin, Anhui, Jiangxi, Henan, Guangdong and Shanxi provinces (thermal power installed capacity projects are all over 1.3 million kw).
The new installed capacity of wind power accounted for 14.1%, mainly in Jiangsu, Shanxi, Qinghai, Henan, Hubei and other provinces (the total installed capacity of projects is over 700,000 kw).
Hydropower installations accounted for 7.9% of the total, mainly in Yunnan, Sichuan, Guangdong, Gansu and Hainan provinces (with a total installed capacity of over 400,000 kW).
FIG. 3 New installed capacity types in each province from January to August 2018
