China's fossil fuelled power continues to rise in May despite weak wind output

Data from the'statistics bureau' showed that China's fossil fuelled power generation, which is mainly derived?from coal, but also includes a small amount of natural gas, increased by 2.1% from a year ago in May, as wind speeds decreased. The National Bureau of Statistics reported that fossil-fueled or thermal power grew 3.4% in the first five month of the year. The increase in the?volumes of hydropower, which increased 13% compared to a year ago in May, was not enough to stop the rise in thermal power production, which grew in order to meet 'power demand growth. Lauri Myllyvirta said that the wind conditions in March April and May had been worse than in any of the previous 10 years. She predicted, however, that the conditions would improve. The data shows that China generated 784,3 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) from all sources of energy in May. This is a 4.2% increase compared to May last year. The first five months of power output grew by 3.6%. Data reflects the output of industrial?enterprises whose revenue is?above 20,000,000 yuan (2.96 million dollars), but omitting small-scale renewables like solar will likely?understate total power production. China's electricity demand is expected to increase by 5%-6% in 2014, reaching a record-breaking?11 trillion Kilowatt-hours. This was predicted at the Coaltrans Conference held last week in Beijing.

(source: Reuters)