China is set to increase its coal use, raising the sector's capacity by 19% over the next five years. It is expected that coal-fired plant capacity will still remain below the 1,100 gigawatts mark. The country also intends to increase its non-fossil power by 48 percent to 770 gigawatts by 2020.

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The Chinese government is promoting the use of cleaner fuels for curtailing the country's pollution issues caused by the use of fuels such as coal. The country intends to increase the share of natural gas to 10 percent of its aggregate energy mix by 2020. Currently, natural gas contributes 6 percent to the total energy consumption.

China holds the top position in the world for clean energy investments. However, the country has now scaled back its wind and solar power targets for 2020. China is now looking for 110 gigawatts of solar power by 2020. This figure is 27 percent lower than its previous target.

The country also slashed its wind power target by 16 percent to 210 gigawatts. Bloomberg quoted a Greenpeace East Asia email stating, "Given the urgency of combating air pollution and climate change, we would expect the government to accelerate investments in clean energy, rather than stabilize or slow down."

China's total power consumption is expected to be between 6.8 trillion and 7.2 trillion kilowatt hour (KWh) by 2020. At the end of 2015, China's power consumption stood at 5.96 trillion KWh. Despite the increase in cap on coal use, its share in the energy mix is likely to decline to close to 50 percent, from nearly two third contribution.

Tagscoal, wind power, Hydro Power