China National Energy Administration: Investment in Key Hydrogen Projects Doubled in the First Half of the Year in 2025
July 31, 2025, Beijing: The National Energy Administration (NEA) held a press conference for the third quarter of 2025, releasing the national energy situation in the first half of the year, the grid connection and operation of renewable energy in the first half, and information on the overall power supply and demand during the summer peak. It also released the China New Energy Storage Development Report (2025) and answered reporters' questions.
Xing Yiteng, Deputy Director of the Development Planning Department, stated that investment in key hydrogen projects doubled in the first half of the year, with multiple under-construction green hydrogen projects in Jilin Province advancing at an accelerated pace. Investment in charging and swapping infrastructure increased by nearly 70% year-on-year, and nine pilot cities for the first large-scale application of vehicle-grid integration are accelerating the construction of intelligent charging and swapping infrastructure. Investment in new energy storage and source-grid-load-storage integration both grew by over 30% year-on-year.
The following is the transcript of the press conference:
【Bian Guangqi, Deputy Director of the Energy Conservation and Science & Technology Equipment Department】
Dear journalists, good morning. I would like to introduce the basic information of the China New Energy Storage Development Report (2025). In recent years, China's new energy storage has developed rapidly, playing an increasingly prominent role in the new power system, effectively promoting the absorption of new energy development, and improving the safe and stable operation of the power system. To guide industrial development and serve the implementation of the "dual carbon" strategy, our administration recently organized the compilation of the China New Energy Storage Development Report (2025), which has been provided to journalists here and will be published on the official website of the National Energy Administration after the press conference. Here is a brief introduction:
The Report consists of three parts:
Firstly, it systematically summarizes the development of new energy storage at home and abroad in 2024 from the perspectives of policy system, installed capacity, application scenarios, technological innovation, industrial development, and standard system.
Secondly, it puts forward prospects for the development of the new energy storage industry in 2025 in terms of scientific planning, improving market mechanisms, increasing technological research, promoting role-playing, and consolidating industrial advantages.
Thirdly, it systematically sorts out key events of new energy storage from 2021 to 2024, including major policies, technological innovations, and demonstration projects.
Overall, since the 14th Five-Year Plan, the "four beams and eight pillars" of China's new energy storage development policies have initially taken shape, and the new energy storage industry has developed steadily. By the end of 2024, 73.76 million kilowatts/168 million kilowatt-hours of new energy storage had been completed and put into operation, accounting for over 40% of the world's total installed capacity.
New energy storage technologies have "blossomed in a hundred ways," covering major technical routes applied in global projects, with steadily improved dispatching and operation capabilities, strongly supporting the construction of a new power system.
Firstly, China's policy system for new energy storage development has been continuously improved.
Multiple policy documents have been issued, such as the Notice on Promoting the Grid-connection and Dispatching of New Energy Storage, the Action Plan for Accelerating the Construction of a New Power System (2024-2027), and the Guiding Opinions on Supporting the Innovative Development of New Market Entities in the Power Sector, which improve the power market mechanism and guide scientific development.
Secondly, the application effect of new energy storage has gradually emerged.
In 2024, the annual dispatch of new energy storage significantly increased compared with 2023.
Provinces (regions) such as Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Chongqing, and Xinjiang achieved an average annual equivalent utilization hour of over 1,000, becoming an important means to promote the absorption of new energy.
During the summer peak period, new energy storage fully played the role of a "superpower bank" and contributed significantly to power supply during peak hours.
Thirdly, solid progress has been made in technological innovation.
In 2024, the National Energy Administration released 56 new energy storage pilot projects covering more than ten technical routes. Many pilot projects were the first engineering applications in China, showing a diversified development trend, effectively promoting breakthroughs in key technologies and equipment for new energy storage.
Meanwhile, 12 new energy storage projects were selected as supporting projects for the fourth batch of first-of-its-kind major technical equipment in the energy sector, providing application scenarios for the implementation and transformation of such equipment.
Fourthly, the standard system has been continuously improved.
In 2024, more than 20 electrochemical energy storage standards were issued and implemented, with multiple standards approved, covering planning and design, grid connection, operation control, maintenance and testing, and post-evaluation. China's new energy storage standard system construction has been further enhanced.
2025 is the closing year of the 14th Five-Year Plan, the planning year for the 15th Five-Year Plan, and a crucial year for new energy storage to achieve technological breakthroughs, improve management systems, and move towards high-quality development.
The National Energy Administration will earnestly implement the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, further strengthen top-level design, steadily carry out research and compilation of the 15th Five-Year Plan for new energy storage, and coordinate technological innovation and sustainable industrial development to lay a solid foundation for a good start to the 15th Five-Year Plan. Thank you.
【CCTV Reporter】What are the characteristics of investment and construction in key energy projects in the first half of this year?
【Xing Yiteng, Deputy Director of the Development Planning Department】 Thank you for your question. According to monitoring, in the first half of this year, China's energy infrastructure construction maintained good momentum. The investment completed in key energy projects under construction or planned to start within the year exceeded 1.5 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 21.6%. The year-on-year growth rates of investment completed in the eastern, central, and western regions all exceeded 20%. Private enterprise investment maintained rapid growth, with new energy investment increasingly focusing on "green and new" sectors. Specifically, investment and construction in key energy projects showed the following four characteristics:
Firstly, investment in new energy power generation maintained rapid growth.
In the first half of the year, investment in onshore wind power in Guangxi and Xinjiang doubled year-on-year, while investment in offshore wind power in Guangdong, Fujian, and Shanghai was released intensively. Investment in centralized photovoltaic power generation increased by 24.5% year-on-year, and distributed photovoltaic power generation investment grew by over 70% year-on-year, with rapid growth in distributed photovoltaic investment in the eastern and central regions. Investment in solar thermal power generation nearly doubled compared with the same period last year.
Secondly, investment in power supply guarantees continued expansion.
In the first half of the year, investment in coal-fired power, nuclear power, and other fields maintained rapid growth. A number of key coal-fired power projects supporting summer peak power supply in East China, Central China, and western Inner Mongolia were completed and put into operation. Investment in power grids, pumped storage, and other fields maintained steady growth. Over 160 key power grid projects for summer peak supply were put into operation on schedule, with multiple UHV DC projects commissioned. The Panxi power grid optimization and transformation project in Sichuan was fully completed, and a number of inter-provincial tie-line projects in the North China, East China, Northwest China, and Northeast China power grids accelerated preliminary work.
Thirdly, investment in new energy formats was released at an accelerated pace.
In the first half of the year, investment in key hydrogen projects doubled, with multiple under-construction green hydrogen projects in Jilin Province advancing rapidly. Investment in charging and swapping infrastructure increased by nearly 70% year-on-year, and nine pilot cities for the first large-scale application of vehicle-grid integration accelerated the construction of intelligent charging and swapping infrastructure. Investment in new energy storage and source-grid-load-storage integration both grew by over 30% year-on-year.
Fourthly, investment by private enterprises in the energy sector grew rapidly.
In the first half of the year, investment completed by private enterprises in the energy sector increased by 27.8% year-on-year. Private enterprises accelerated investment in distributed photovoltaic and onshore wind power, with year-on-year growth of over 40% in investment completed, and maintained rapid growth in charging and swapping infrastructure and centralized photovoltaic, with year-on-year growth of about 15% in investment completed. Thank you.
Source: National Energy Administration