State Grid Corporation of China, the biggest grid operator in the country, expects to invest as much as $574 billion through 2030, which would be a massive 40% jump in spending on fixed assets compared to the five years to 2025.
China’s grid operators race to upgrade and expand the power transmission and distribution systems amid a surge in renewable energy capacity installations and continued rise in electricity demand.
So State Grid Corporation of China, the world’s largest utility enterprise covering 88% of China’s land area and serving over 1.1 billion people, expects to spend $574 billion (4 trillion Chinese yuan) on fixed-asset investments for the five years to 2030, Shanghai Securities News reported on Thursday, quoting the corporation’s 2026-2030 investment plan.
Even as China continues to invest in coal power plants, its clean energy investments now far exceed investments in fossil fuels as it has become the world’s biggest investor in renewable energy.
However, grids cannot keep pace with the massive build-out and China has had to curtail power output from solar and wind, whose soaring capacity sometimes boosts clean power generation beyond the limits of the grids.
China also plans to have its battery storage capacity more than double to 180 gigawatts (GW) by 2027 in a new plan aimed at attracting $35.1 billion (250 billion yuan).
China, which is the world’s top battery storage market, needs a lot more new battery storage to support the massive rollout of solar and wind power-generating capacity.
China has cemented its position as the world’s single largest investor in energy, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its World Energy Investment 2025 report.
“Today, China is by far the largest energy investor globally, spending twice as much on energy as the European Union – and almost as much as the EU and United States combined,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in the June report.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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