The Qinghai province of China, with a population of 5.8 million people, used only renewable energy sources (wind, water and sun) for seven days (from 17 to 23 June) to generate electricity, according to the agency Of Chinese news 'Xinhua'. The Asian country broke the previous record of Portugal, which operated with clean energy for four days (from 7 to 11 May 2016).
According to Quan Shengming, general manager of the Qinghai electricity grid, the use of electricity during this period amounted to 1.1 billion kilowatt-hours, equivalent to 535,000 tons of coal. Its hydroelectric power plants supply 72.3% of this energy, while the rest comes from solar and wind power plants.
Much of this energy is generated by the Laxiwa hydroelectric plant on the Amarillo River, which produces 10.2 billion kilowatt-hours per year. The station staff was reviewing the facilities and the extra work hours for months to ensure proper operation during the trial period.
During the month of May, the red province had an installed capacity of 23.4 million kilowatts, 82.8% of which came from renewable energy sources.