China: State Grid Corporation of China, which supplies power across 88 % of the country and serves more than 1.1 billion people, plans to invest up to $574 B (4 T yuan) in fixed assets between 2026 and 2030. According to Shanghai Securities News, this would represent a sharp 40% increase compared with spending in the five years to 2025.
China’s grid operators are under pressure to expand and modernise transmission and distribution systems as wind and solar capacity surges and electricity demand continues to climb. While China is still building new coal-fired power plants, investment in clean energy now far outweighs spending on fossil fuels, making the country the world’s largest investor in renewable energy.
Despite this rapid build-out, power grids have struggled to keep pace. At times, electricity output from solar and wind has been curtailed because generation has exceeded what the grid can handle.
To help solve this problem, China also plans to more than double its battery storage capacity to 180 GW by 2027. The new plan aims to attract $35.1 B (250 B yuan) in investment. As the world’s largest battery storage market, China needs far more storage to support its vast expansion of renewable power.
China’s dominance in energy investment was highlighted by the International Energy Agency. In its World Energy Investment 2025 report, the IEA said China is the single largest energy investor globally.
“Today, China is by far the largest energy investor globally,” said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol, noting that China spends twice as much as the European Union and almost as much as the EU and the United States combined.
Source: Oil Price
