Leading New Energy Enterprises Landing Major Investments in Succession

◎ Reporter Wu Bin

Since the first quarter of this year, China’s new energy industry has experienced a new wave of investment. From the national power grid to leading battery manufacturers, from giant anode material companies to wind power equipment leaders, a series of large-scale investments have been continuously announced.

According to interviews with Shanghai Securities News, as the “dual carbon” goals advance and favorable policies for new energy continue to be released, many leading new energy companies are accelerating their nationwide expansion, focusing on core areas such as integrated wind, solar, and storage, power battery manufacturing, and new energy materials. They are further consolidating their industry positions and seizing development opportunities through large investments, capacity expansion, and supply chain improvements.

Leading Companies Increase Investment

Recently, China General Nuclear (Shanxi) New Energy Investment Co., Ltd. completed business registration and changed its registered capital from 50 million yuan to approximately 8.56 billion yuan. Additionally, this capital increase introduced three financial institutions under large state-owned banks as strategic shareholders through market-based methods. The new funds will mainly be used for the development, construction, and operation upgrades of wind, photovoltaic, and energy storage projects in Shanxi, as well as for expanding smart energy initiatives and acquiring high-quality external new energy assets.

A review by the reporter found that this is not an isolated case.

Since 2026, many leading companies have been active: in January, Fulin Precision’s subsidiary established Inner Mongolia Fulin Times New Materials Co., Ltd. in Ordos, investing 6 billion yuan to build an annual 500,000-ton high-end lithium iron phosphate energy storage project; in February, CATL signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Ningde city government, planning a total investment of over 60 billion yuan to establish a global headquarters and “mother factory”; in March, Zhengli New Energy signed a contract to settle a 50 GWh long-term energy storage intelligent manufacturing project in Changshu, Suzhou, with a total investment of 10 billion yuan…

“Large capital injections by leading companies are a forecast of the changes in the ‘14th Five-Year’ industrial logic: to seize new market space, dominate technological tracks, and control business models,” said Li Zhi, associate professor at the Energy Economics Research Center of Xiamen University. He analyzed that in the short term, these moves are capital expenditure expansions, but in the long term, they are key strategic layouts to lock in global competitiveness and avoid risks associated with traditional industry decline.

Industry Investment Opens New Opportunities

“The ‘14th Five-Year’ Plan emphasizes ‘building a new energy system around water, wind, solar, and nuclear energy,’ which brings new development opportunities for related industries,” said Han Wenke, a researcher at the China Macroeconomic Research Institute, in an interview with Shanghai Securities News.

Since the first quarter, several favorable policies for the new energy sector have been released: at the end of January, a notice to improve the capacity electricity price mechanism for power generation was issued, opening a stable profit channel for energy storage projects; in March, the “Basic Rules for the Medium- and Long-term Power Market” was officially implemented, further improving the market trading mechanism for new energy. Additionally, policies such as pilot projects for hydrogen energy applications and guidelines for photovoltaic module recycling have been rolled out, forming a policy support system covering the entire industry chain.

Against this backdrop, “new energy” has become a frequently mentioned term in government work reports of provinces, regions, and cities. According to incomplete statistics by the reporter, more than 20 provinces have explicitly listed wind, solar, storage, and hydrogen energy industries as key development directions.

As a pilot province for the comprehensive reform of the national energy revolution, Shanxi issued a notice at the beginning of 2026 regarding the mechanism electricity price bidding for incremental new energy projects, addressing the core issue of uncertain returns. The notice specifies that for new incremental projects in 2026, a mechanism electricity price of 0.2 to 0.32 yuan per kWh (including tax) will be set, with a long-term lock-in period of 10 years.

“When national policies and industry trends work together, the market will generate new vitality,” Han Wenke said. The major investments distributed across different regions of the country are the most direct recognition of the development prospects of the new energy industry by enterprises.