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Frank Chen

China is charting an ambitious five-year plan to harness nuclear and other non-fossil sources in a bid to generate half of the country’s electricity needs by 2030.
Recent oil shocks have strengthened Beijing’s resolve as it juggles decarbonising its energy sector and securing future demand, including that needed for artificial intelligence.
The plan, unveiled on Thursday by the National Energy Administration (NEA) and top economic planner National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), also contains a raft of goals to markedly increase the share of wind and solar in newly installed power generation capacities.
The country’s total annual energy production capacity will also rise from a sum equivalent to 5.8 billion tonnes in 2030, from 5.13 billion tonnes in 2025. Meanwhile, 50 per cent of the total electricity generated that year will be from diversified non-fossil sources, ranging from nuclear and hydro to wind and solar.
“In the next five years China’s energy system will feature greater security and resilience, and better, newer energy structure for integration, efficiency and innovation,” said NEA director Wang Hongzhi at a press conference on Friday. “We will optimise the overall planning and layout and strengthen support for key projects.” He added that total related investment would exceed 20 trillion yuan (US$2.9 trillion).
With Beijing’s AI push and related energy use – including for data centres – increasing exponentially and straining the grid, the plan aimed to promote “two-way empowerment” to quench national power needs while embedding AI into both energy generation and its use.
The plan proposed prioritising green electricity supply, better coordination between large energy bases and major computing hubs as well as macro-management of data centre power use.
It also identified energy security as an overriding priority as the world’s second-largest economy persists with a multipronged approach to future-proof its needs, betting on nuclear power but also sticking with diversified import sources.

China would continue to amp up its nuclear energy construction push along its coast – but not in inland regions because of safety considerations – with a focus on third-generation pressurised water reactor technology to hit 110 million kilowatts of installed nuclear power capacity by 2030, the plan said. The country would also make a determined push to clear the hurdles and realise controlled nuclear fusion, the holy grail of future energy technologies, it added.
However, although committed to championing the global energy transition, China was nowhere near cutting itself off from the use of fossil fuels. Instead, it would “solidify and optimise” fossil fuel production and expand and diversify its oil and gas imports, the plan noted.
China’s use of Russian oil and gas and other efforts at diversification have helped it withstand supply shocks better than other Asian economies. Amid uncertainties in the Middle East following the fragile truce agreement between the US and Iran, oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz remain largely choked.
Expansion of the oil and gas pipelines between China’s northeastern Heilongjiang province and Russia, part of the Power of Siberia 1 project, was another of the plan’s key projects to safeguard future energy supplies.
“To prepare for various contingencies and even extreme circumstances, special arrangements have also been put in place to guarantee energy security and resilience,” Tian Lei, an analyst with the NDRC’s energy research institute, told Xinhua.
The plan would also pave the way for China to see its carbon emissions peak by 2030, part of Beijing’s ambitious timeline to reach carbon neutrality by 2060, despite the fact that the coal-rich country remained the world’s largest emitter of climate-warming greenhouse gases.
To further decarbonise, the plan outlined that measures would also be taken to promote the role of wind and solar including the integrated development of onshore and offshore wind and solar resources for complementarity, smart grids and energy storage systems as well as a national unified electricity market for green certification and pricing.


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Recent oil shocks have strengthened Beijing’s resolve as it tries to balance decarbonisation efforts with securing future energy demand


Recent oil shocks have strengthened Beijing’s resolve as it tries to balance decarbonisation efforts with securing future energy demand.


China to generate 50% of electricity from nuclear and non-fossil sources by 2030

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Recent oil shocks have strengthened Beijing’s resolve as it tries to balance decarbonisation efforts with securing future energy demand

Recent oil shocks have strengthened Beijing’s resolve as it tries to balance decarbonisation efforts with securing future energy demand