BEIJING — China’s power generation continues to pick up in August, with overall electricity output rising by 7.3 percent year-on-year to about 640.5 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Sept 14.

The growth outpaced the 5.7-percent expansion recorded in July. Daily power generation reached 20.66 billion kWh last month, a historic high.

For the first eight months, power generation grew by 7.7 percent, 1.2 percentage points higher than the same period last year.

In August, thermal and hydropower output climbed 6 percent and 11.5 percent year-on-year, respectively, up by 1.7 percentage points and 5.5 percentage points from July.

As for new energy, nuclear and solar power generation went up 16.9 percent and 12.2 percent year-on-year, respectively.

Due to typhoons and heavy rainfall in the summer, wind power output only increased by 0.6 percent year-on-year in August, 24.1 percentage points lower than the July expansion, according to the NBS.