China to spend $940 billion on energy in 2026: focus shifts to power grids.
China's energy investments in 2026 will reach $940 billion, the highest level among the world's countries, according to the 2026 Global Energy Transition Report. Of these, about 140 billion dollars will be in electricity networks, the International Energy Agency estimates. The priority shifts from building new production capacity to upgrading the infrastructure needed to transfer electricity from solar and wind plants to consumers.
The state-owned State Grid plans to invest 4 trillion yuan ($574 billion) in network upgrades in 2030-2026 - 40% more than in the previous five-year period.
On average, this is 800 billion yuan, or about 115 billion dollars a year. The investments will be directed to high voltage lines, transmission networks and interregional distribution of electricity.
The Russian model is much more modest in scale. Rosti's investment plan for 2026 was initially estimated at 857 billion rubles, but in September the head of the company, Andrei Ryumin, announced a forecast of about 1 trillion rubles. This is about 11-13 billion dollars at an exchange rate of 80-90 rubles to the dollar - 11-13 times less than China's annual investments in electricity networks alone.
The financial model is also different: Chinese investments are provided by state-owned network corporations with the participation of other investors, while Rusty relies mainly on its own funds and payments for technological connection; The share of debt financing in recent years did not exceed 20%.
In Russia, the renewal of infrastructure is accompanied by an increase in regulated tariffs, but an increase in payments in itself does not guarantee the acceleration of modernization.