A significant policy catalyst has energized market sentiment. On June 25th, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration jointly issued the "15th Five-Year Plan for the Construction of a New Energy System." This triggered a powerful rally in the new energy sector during the early trading session on June 26th.
The power sector experienced a wave of stocks hitting their daily upward limits. China Energy Conservation Wind Power Corp., Ltd. (SH: 601016), Longyuan Power Group Corp., Ltd. (SZ: 001289), and Jinfang Energy Co., Ltd. (SZ: 001210) all surged directly to their limit-up prices. Other companies like Huadian Liaoneng, Datang Power Generation, and GCL Energy Technology followed with gains. Market buying interest was intense, with Longyuan Power's stock price rocketing to its limit-up in under a minute after opening. China Energy Conservation Wind Power also saw rapid price appreciation and locked at the daily limit with over 260,000 buy orders queued. The solar photovoltaic sector showed concurrent strength, with stocks like DR Laser, TCL Zhonghuan Renewable Energy Technology Co., Ltd., Shuangliang Eco-Energy Systems Co., Ltd., and Suzhou Maxwell Technologies Co., Ltd. all climbing sharply to touch their limit-up prices in early trading.
An economist noted that the strong performance in solar and power stocks, coinciding with a notable pullback in previously leading tech stocks, reflects a market rotation. Funds that were previously concentrated in tech and growth sectors are now moving into traditional sectors like power and new energy, highlighting a shift from high-valuation to lower-valuation areas. This type of sector rotation is seen as a healthy market adjustment that can drive activity across multiple segments.
The economist further pointed out that "HALO assets"—industries characterized by heavy assets and low volatility, such as non-ferrous metals, rare earths, power grid equipment, and new energy sectors like wind, solar, and storage—are not only irreplaceable in the AI era but constitute essential infrastructure for it.
Clear Targets Set for Wind and Solar Development
The newly released Plan, serving as a medium to long-term guiding document for the energy transition, establishes a series of quantified binding targets. By 2030, China aims to have initially built a clean, low-carbon, safe, and efficient new energy system. The comprehensive energy production capacity is targeted to reach 5.8 billion tonnes of standard coal equivalent. The power system's complementary support capabilities and security resilience are set for comprehensive enhancement, with energy imports becoming diversified and controllable. Coal and oil consumption are expected to peak, while the share of non-fossil energy in total consumption should reach 25%.
The wind and solar sectors are presented with a clear incremental growth space. The Plan further proposes that by 2030, the installed capacity share of wind and solar power should exceed 50%, making them the mainstay of power generation capacity. Additionally, the share of non-fossil energy in total electricity generation should reach 50%, making it the dominant source of power. Furthermore, market and pricing mechanisms suited to the new energy system will be rapidly improved, with a basically established national unified power market system.
The Plan also emphasizes building an advanced and adaptable new energy infrastructure system. It advocates for the simultaneous development of centralized and distributed generation, as well as power and non-power applications. It calls for strengthening complementary development of diverse new energy sources, intensive and composite spatial utilization, and integrated aggregated operations. This includes promoting the large-scale and stable development of onshore wind and photovoltaic power, advancing offshore wind power into deeper waters, and scaling up concentrated solar power and marine energy. A comprehensive evaluation index system for new energy consumption will be established, targeting a 30% share of new energy in total power generation by 2030.
Grid connection, consumption capacity, and insufficient grid infrastructure have long been core constraints on the large-scale development of wind and solar power. This Plan addresses this by calling for accelerated construction of new-type power grids. It specifically mentions strengthening inter-regional grid support between Central-South China, Central-East China, North-East China, and Central-Northwest China, aiming to enhance complementary capacity by approximately 40 gigawatts. Additionally, it aims to transform distribution grids into efficient platforms for configuring source-grid-load-storage resources, striving to achieve a capacity to accommodate 900 gigawatts of distributed new energy by 2030.
An energy policy expert highlighted that the core challenge in building a new power system lies in energy storage. The current key focus is on expanding the scale of the energy storage industry through multiple measures to reduce costs. China's wind and solar industry chains have ample capacity and broad market demand. The entire development pathway can be viable once wind and solar paired with storage become economically competitive. Energy storage not only enhances the market competitiveness of wind and solar power but is also crucial for ensuring grid stability.
Multiple New Energy Stocks Rally
The core gainers in this rally were concentrated in the wind and solar sectors. From a business perspective, Longyuan Power is affiliated with China Energy Investment Group. It successfully listed on the Hong Kong Main Board in 2009, hailed as "China's first new energy stock," and officially listed on the A-share market in 2022. The company has completely divested from thermal power. As of the end of 2025, its controlled installed capacity was 45,994.29 megawatts, comprising 32,147.37 MW of wind power and 13,840.82 MW of solar power.
A company representative indicated that China aims to achieve 3,600 gigawatts of wind and solar installed capacity by 2035. With the current level around 1,900 gigawatts, this implies an average annual addition of nearly 200 gigawatts of new energy capacity, indicating ample market space. The company's planned construction starts and operational capacity for 2026 are both 4.5 gigawatts, with wind projects accounting for over 90%.
China Energy Conservation Wind Power focuses on the wind power generation sector and is one of the largest wind power developers in the Zhangbei Bashang area of Hebei and the Hexi Corridor in Gansu. As of the end of 2025, its operational installed capacity reached 6,142.16 megawatts, with grid-connected electricity generation of 11.913 billion kilowatt-hours and an average utilization of 2,035 hours.
TCL Zhonghuan is a leading integrated photovoltaic company, primarily engaged in silicon wafers, modules, power stations, and semiconductor materials. Shuangliang Eco-Energy was founded in 1995 and listed in 2003. Its main business products include energy and water-saving products, new energy equipment, and photovoltaic products, serving downstream sectors like new energy power generation, steel, coal chemical, and thermal power.
In recent years, the photovoltaic sector has faced significant supply-demand imbalances, leading to performance declines for both companies. In 2025, TCL Zhonghuan reported operating revenue of 29.05 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.22%, but a net loss attributable to shareholders of 9.264 billion yuan, though the loss narrowed by 5.65%. Shuangliang Eco-Energy also faced pressure, with revenue shrinking to 7.565 billion yuan and a net loss attributable to shareholders of 1.116 billion yuan.
Sustained Strong Growth in Power Demand
On June 26th, leading photovoltaic equipment manufacturers also saw gains. By the market close, DR Laser surged 9.54%, Suzhou Maxwell rose 6.3%, while Meyer Burger Technology AG and Jingsheng Mechanical & Electrical Co., Ltd. gained 4.98% and 3.35% respectively. The photovoltaic industry has been in a downturn in recent years, with equipment manufacturers facing tough times and significant reductions in order volumes.
Behind the stock surge, besides the strong confidence boost from the high-level policy, lies the inseparable link with China's rapid development of renewable energy and robust growth in electricity demand in recent years.
On June 25th, the National Energy Administration released significant data showing China's total installed power generation capacity has surpassed 4,000 gigawatts, a landmark achievement in building a strong energy nation. Within this, installed solar capacity reached 1,260 gigawatts, up 16.3% year-on-year, while wind power capacity hit 660 gigawatts, a 17.0% increase.
Looking back at China's power construction history, the national installed capacity was only over 57 gigawatts in 1978. It surpassed 1,000 gigawatts in 2011 and 2,000 gigawatts in 2019, soaring to 3,000 gigawatts by 2024. It took only two more years to reach the new milestone of 4,000 gigawatts, indicating a continuously accelerating pace of new energy capacity expansion. In 2025, China's wind and solar power generation each exceeded 1 trillion kilowatt-hours, meaning one out of every three kilowatt-hours of electricity came from renewable sources. By May 2026, coal power's share had fallen to 32%, while the share of installed renewable energy capacity had reached as high as 61%.
Growth on the electricity demand side also demonstrates strong resilience. In 2025, total electricity consumption in society reached 10,368.2 billion kilowatt-hours, a year-on-year increase of 5.0%. Electricity consumption in the battery swapping and charging service industry, as well as in information transmission, software, and IT services, grew by 48.8% and 17.0% respectively.
Currently, the explosive growth of artificial intelligence, with big data centers, AI computing centers, and cloud computing servers operating at high loads year-round, coupled with the high energy consumption of computing equipment, is further driving a surge in China's electricity consumption. A Longyuan Power representative noted that while electricity consumption for AI and related sectors is growing significantly, its proportion in total societal electricity consumption remains relatively small.
A new energy finance expert stated that during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, the proportion of green electricity in the power system will continue to rise, a trend evident in various recently issued policy documents. Beyond this, a current policy focus is increasing the share of green electricity consumption in non-power sectors. Simply put, this involves using green electricity locally to produce green thermal energy, such as green steam or green hydrogen. This pathway plays a significant role in promoting an early peak in China's oil consumption. Currently, a substantial portion of oil is used as a chemical feedstock; vigorously developing green chemicals can effectively reduce the industry's dependence on petroleum-based raw materials.
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