Abstract This paper, firstly, investigates the relationship between clean energy and economic growth using satellite remote sensing data to proxy economic activities. Then, this paper constructs a spatial autoregressive model, spatial error model, and spatial Durbin model to study the spatial spillover effects of financial development and clean energy. Further, this paper adopts the difference-in-differences (DID) model and the propensity score matching-DID (PSM-DID) method to conduct quasi-natural experiments on clean energy and examine whether China's energy policy can promote clean energy, thereby promoting economic growth. The analysis results reveal a positive correlation between clean energy and economic growth; local financial development promotes clean energy in the region but negatively impacts the clean energy in surrounding areas. Moreover, the findings confirm a significant positive relationship between the “policy treatment effect” and clean energy. Finally, we put forward relevant policy recommendations based on the empirical results.