China is planning further measures designed to prioritise use of energy from renewable power sources, aimed at improving generators’ revenues, the country’s energy body said on Monday. A draft rule issued by the National Energy Administration will apply to non-hydropower resources, including wind, solar, biomass, geothermal and ocean power, the administration said in a statement. Despite rapid expansion and a drastic fall in the cost of producing power, renewable firms are still struggling to produce power as cheaply as coal-fired plants. China said last week it would cut its renewable power subsidies by 30 per cent to 5.7 billion yuan (US$800 million) in 2020, and plans to stop funding large solar power stations and onshore wind farms in the coming two years, partly due to a payment backlog. The world’s largest energy consumer, China has been boosting consumption of clean energy by forcing grid firms to prioritise renewable power resources and to maximise purchases from local renewable power providers. In future, local energy administrations would also need to take into account “fair returns” when buying electricity from renewable power producers, the National Energy Administration said in the draft rule. It did not give further details. The administration said it also planned to look at tightening supervision of grid firms, electricity trading firms and renewable power generators, in a bid to ensure electricity was bought from renewable sources. In the first 10 months of this year, China generated 38.6 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity from solar and wind resources, accounting for 6.6 per cent of total power generation, official data showed.