On 25 June, China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) released its plan for building a new-energy system during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), marking the first time the term “computing power” has been included in a Chinese national energy plan, noted Shanghai Security News.
The inclusion is “no less significant than the inclusion of ‘new energy’ in the plan” previously, Lin Boqiang, dean of the China Institute for Energy Policy Studies at Xiamen University, told the outlet.
Electricity demand from computing power – comprising power centres and computing hubs supporting emerging digital technologies like AI – is projected to increase by more than 100 billion kilowatt-hours annually from 2026-2030, accounting for about 6% of total electricity consumption, the outlet stated. This is nearly four times that of 2025, when it made up just 1.6%.
The plan encourages building direct green-power supply to meet surging computing demand, echoing a May 2025 policy.
It also sends a signal to the market. Among the 105 approved direct green-power supply projects, half of them come from private enterprises. The government will expand opportunities for private investment in major energy projects, said Wan Jinsong, deputy administrator of the NEA, at a press conference for the plan.
Investment in new-energy projects from 2026-2030 is expected to exceed RMB 20 trillion, said Wang Hongzhi, head of the NEA, at the press conference. The new energy system plan has been seen by some commentators as being a key driver of economic growth.
The plan aims to integrate 900GW of distributed renewables to the grid by 2030, and reach 300GW of new-energy storage – such as pumped hydropower and lithium-ion battery storage – to improve renewable energy integration and dispatch.
In terms of emissions targets, however, some view the plan as relatively weak. Its goal of 50% non-fossil power generation by 2030 still leaves room for around 10.6% for fossil fuel expansion, argued analysts from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. While the plan states that coal consumption should peak during the period, it also lacks “a quantitative cap on coal generation”, they note.
Read Dialogue Earth’s previous analysis on China’s historic drop in power-sector emissions.
