China said it will expand investment in fixed assets related to the power system to 4 trillion yuan (about 846 trillion won) during the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030). That is a 40% increase from the past five years and is set to be used to secure transmission and distribution networks and electric vehicle charging facilities to expand renewable energy supply. Earlier, Chinese President Xi Jinping said he would raise the share of non-fossil energy to more than 30% by 2035.
According to state-run Xinhua News Agency on the 16th, the State Grid Corporation said this in a medium- to long-term investment plan released on the 15th, noting, "We will build a smarter and greener power grid system to drive the co-growth of the entire industrial chain of the new power system." Through this, it aims to increase the average annual newly installed capacity of renewables such as wind and solar to about 200 million kW and raise the share of non-fossil energy consumption to around 25%.
Earlier, Chinese President Xi Jinping directly announced the national greenhouse gas reduction target at the U.N. Climate Summit in Sep. last year, saying of renewable energy, "We will expand the share of non-fossil fuels to more than 30% by 2035" and "We will foster new energy vehicles as the mainstream of new car sales."
The core of this investment plan is to resolve grid bottlenecks to expand the supply of renewable power. China currently has high renewable generation but faces structural limits that make transmission and distribution difficult. The idea is to stabilize the renewable power grid by removing bottlenecks across the full cycle—from generating electricity to sending it to households and industrial sites and finally to end use by consumers.
Xinhua News Agency said, "The transition to renewables is the key direction of this grid investment," adding, "From the solar panels in the Qinghai desert to the wind turbines on the Inner Mongolia grasslands, the constantly produced renewable power urgently needs to be transmitted nationwide through an upgraded grid."
The State Grid Corporation will first speed up the construction of ultra-high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission networks. In China, energy resources are concentrated in the west while power demand is concentrated in the east, creating a need for fast, high-capacity transmission. Accordingly, it plans to boost cross-regional transmission capacity by more than 30% compared with the end of 2025.
It will also expand investment in distribution. If transmission serves like a main artery that sends electricity far, distribution is like capillaries that densely allocate electricity to each demand point. The State Grid Corporation will in particular conduct microgrid (small-scale power grid) demonstrations in parallel to improve the stability of power supply in island and mountainous regions. Because microgrids produce, store, and use electricity within a specific area or complex without relying on a large grid, they can manage energy stably and efficiently.
The State Grid Corporation will also strengthen its ability to balance power supply and demand. It will actively deploy pumped-storage power plants, which can store electricity, and nurture the new energy storage system (ESS) industry. Reflecting demand for charging infrastructure as electric vehicles become more widespread, it plans to secure about 35 million charging facilities during the 15th Five-Year Plan.
The State Grid Corporation said, "We will strictly control costs during the construction stage and optimize resource allocation during operations," adding, "We will increase not only the intensity of investment but also its precision so that funds deliver maximum effect." Xinhua News Agency assessed that this large-scale investment "will make EV charging more convenient, corporate power supply more stable, and renewable power from wind and solar delivered more efficiently."