URUMQI, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region saw a year-on year growth of 44.9 percent in electricity generated by new energy sources last year, the local energy authority said Thursday.

In 2017, new energy sources generated 41.5 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, said the Xinjiang branch of State Grid.

About 16.1 billion kilowatt hours were transmitted to other provincial-level regions, doubling the figure for 2016.

Experts said the economic recovery both in and outside the region has helped electricity consumption grow.

Within Xinjiang, electricity sales totaled 87.7 billion kilowatt hours, up 19.3 percent. Strong growth in power consumption has been seen in the steel, aluminum, textile, and industrial manufacturing industries.

Xinjiang had 80 million kilowatts of installed power capacity, in which 27 million comes from new energy sources.