China's clean energy use to expand: official

BEIJING - As China's economy shifts, its energy consumption is becoming more green, led by growth of natural gas and non-fossil fuels.

Energy consumption in China will expand approximately 3 percent yearly in the next five years, slowing down from an average growth of 4.3 percent during 2010 to 2014, said Zhang Yuqing, deputy director of the National Energy Administration in a recent conference on clean energy development.

The bright side is that the growth will be led by cleaner energy such as natural gas and non-fossil fuels instead of coal, said Zhang.

China's energy consumption has seen continuing slowdown partly thanks to a drop in consumption of coal, the country's primary energy source.

Latest data from the China National Coal Association (CNCA) showed that coal consumption fell 4.7 percent during the January-October period this year, continuing a downward trend that began last year.

Consumption of natural gas only accounted for 5.7 percent of total primary energy use last year, still far from the government's target of 10 percent by 2020.

To meet the target, demand for energy has been shifting from heavy chemical industries to service and technology, with new energy cars and smart power grids driving consumption, Zhang said.