BEIJING - China's wind power generation has picked up amid government efforts to expand clean energy to curb pollution.

Wind power generation totaled 305.7 billion kilowatt hours in 2017, accounting for 4.8 percent of the country's total power output, up 0.7 percentage point from one year earlier, according to data released by the National Energy Administration.

Because of low utilization efficiency, 41.9 billion kwh of wind power was wasted in 2017, 7.8 billion kwh less than the previous year, according to the administration.

Fujian, Yunnan, Sichuan and Shanghai took the lead in wind power use efficiency, while Gansu, Xinjiang, Jilin, Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang saw high rates of waste.

China has been promoting green resources such as wind and solar in recent years to cope with pollution and to boost the quality of economic growth.

Pollution control will continue to be a priority, as the government has made it one of the "three tough battles" for the next three years, together with major risk prevention and poverty reduction.

The country aims to cap its coal-fired power capacity at 1,000 gigawatts in 2020, and non-fossil fuel will account for half of the country's total power generation by 2030.