It’s now clear: the photovoltaic sector is undergoing a major transformation, signaling that the new‑energy industry has entered the “second half” of the competition. What has changed?

As of the end of September 2025, China’s installed capacity of wind and solar power has reached 1.72 billion kilowatts, accounting for 46% of the nation’s total generating capacity. This marks the entry of China’s new‑energy sector into the world’s largest renewable‑energy system. However, in stark contrast to this rapid expansion, the utilization rate of new‑energy generation has fallen below 94%, with curtailment rates exceeding 40% in regions such as Xinjiang, Tibet, Gansu, and Shandong—and in some areas even surging past 60%. With installed capacity no longer the bottleneck and utilization emerging as the central challenge, the traditional “siloed” development model can no longer sustain itself.
 

Just yesterday, the National Energy Administration officially released the “Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Integrated and Coordinated Development of New Energy” (NEA New Energy [2025] No. 93). This document is widely regarded within the industry as a landmark policy signaling that new energy has entered its second phase. It not only redefines the development paradigm for photovoltaic and other new energy sources but also systematically establishes a new, “cluster‑based” approach to integrating new energy with coal‑fired power, energy storage, hydrogen energy, computing power, and other sectors. (If you find this helpful, please follow and like it! Feel free to share it with colleagues who might benefit—let’s continue the discussion in the comments. If there are any inaccuracies, please point them out in the comment section.)

I. From “Bare-Bones Assemblies” to “System Integrations”: A Watershed Moment for the New Energy Industry Has Arrived

Since the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan, the defining theme for China’s new energy sector has been an explosive growth in installed capacity; as we enter the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the key priorities will be system efficiency and integration capability. The National Energy Administration has explicitly stated that future new‑energy development must shift from standalone construction toward integrated, holistic deployment, with this transition taking shape across three distinct directions:

1) Left-right integration : Enable wind power, photovoltaics, energy storage, and hydrogen energy to collaborate and form a cohesive ecosystem, achieving complementary multi‑energy integration and balancing fluctuations;

2) Front-to-back integration: Bridge the gap between the generation and consumption sides, ensuring that “as much electricity as is generated is consumed locally.”

3) Vertical Integration: Promote deep integration between new energy and industries such as computing power centers, chemical engineering, metallurgy, and transportation, thereby establishing a circular economy model of “green‑to‑green” production.

This means that the value proposition of new energy has shifted from “selling electricity” to “selling system‑level capabilities,” with a transition from project development to building an integrated energy ecosystem.

II. Three Major Paths to “Integration”: The Organizational Paradigm of New Energy Has Been Completely Redefined

The “Guiding Opinions” propose that, in the future, new energy will be restructured along three main axes:

1. Multidimensional Integrated Development: Building an “Energy Super‑Complex”

In the future, photovoltaics will no longer operate in isolation but will form a dynamically coupled energy complex alongside wind power, energy storage, concentrating solar power, and coal-fired generation.

At the “Shagohuang” mega‑base, efforts are underway to explore 100% renewable‑energy power supply through concentrated solar power, molten‑salt thermal storage, co‑firing with coal, and ammonia‑based peak‑shaving.

Intensive land use: co‑locating wind and solar facilities, sharing transmission and distribution corridors, and adopting mixed‑use land‑development approaches (in mining areas, subsidence zones, and through submarine cable sharing) to maximize the value of limited land resources.

Distributed Integrated Development: Transportation hubs, airports, ports, and highway service areas will all become integrated “photovoltaic‑storage‑charging‑battery‑swap” energy nodes, while rural areas will advance comprehensive microgrids incorporating wind, solar, gas, and storage.

2. Multi‑industry Collaborative Development: Synergy Between Energy, Manufacturing, and Computing Power

The policy explicitly calls for restructuring the industrial landscape with a focus on new energy:

“Green-to-Green”: Establish green‑energy manufacturing parks in regions rich in renewable resources, where wind and solar power generate electricity, that electricity powers the production of equipment, and that equipment, in turn, supports further wind and solar generation, creating a self‑sustaining cycle.

“West-to-East Power Transmission for Local Use”: Guiding energy-intensive industries such as steel, chemicals, and nonferrous metals to relocate to the western region, thereby enabling local consumption of new‑energy electricity at the source and alleviating transmission‑grid congestion.

“Driving Innovation with Innovation”: Coordinating the deployment of new energy sources with the “East Data, West Computing” initiative and computing‑power centers, fostering adaptive integration between computing demand and renewable‑energy fluctuations, and achieving interconnected operation of the electricity and computing networks.

3. Diversified Non-Electric Applications: Opening Up a New Blue Ocean for Renewable Energy

The “second front” for new energy lies in non-electric applications:

Integrated Wind–Solar–Hydrogen–Storage System: Developing wide‑band electrolyzers and integrated control systems to enable hydrogen production that automatically adjusts in response to fluctuations in electricity supply.

Green Hydrogen–Ammonia–Methanol Hub: Deploy green hydrogen, green ammonia, and green methanol industries in regions abundant in wind, solar, and other resources, establishing a “hydrogen-based energy corridor” to serve the metallurgical, shipping, and chemical sectors.

New‑energy heating and cooling: Leveraging green electricity, geothermal energy, and solar‑thermal integration to deliver multi‑energy complementary solutions for industrial parks and urban district heating systems.

The new energy industry is shifting from a “power generation sector” to an “energy industry,” with photovoltaics evolving from a mere power source to a pivotal energy hub spanning the entire value chain.

III. Is this transformation tailored exclusively for state-owned and centrally administered enterprises?

Many industry insiders worry: With such complex multi‑energy coordination and industrial integration, what capabilities are required? Is it something only state‑owned enterprises can accomplish? In fact, the “Guiding Opinions” explicitly articulates a two‑tiered division of labor—“small and medium‑sized enterprises fill in the gaps, while large enterprises tackle the most challenging tasks.”

Central and state-owned enterprises: Focus on large-scale integrated bases, dispatching systems, and breakthroughs in key technologies (such as grid‑forming inverters, wide‑band hydrogen production, and virtual power plants).

Private enterprises and SMEs: Focus on specialized segments and fill gaps in the industrial chain, such as equipment supply, distributed energy integration services, energy storage system optimization, and microgrid solutions.

Technology firms and capital institutions will serve as “integration catalysts,” emerging as key players in new growth areas such as virtual power plants, digital twins, electricity market trading, and carbon certification.

The organizational model for new‑energy projects will also evolve from a “project‑based” approach to an “ecosystem‑platform‑based” one. In the future, a single new‑energy hub could host power generators, hydrogen‑energy firms, computing‑power providers, energy‑storage operators, and green‑certificate trading platforms, thereby forming a fully integrated energy‑value‑chain ecosystem.

IV. The “four major hurdles” of approval, dispatch, technology, and land remain persistent pain points.

While the policy vision is ambitious, its implementation has proven far from smooth—multi‑energy integration projects involve numerous departments, including development and reform, natural resources, ocean affairs, industry and information technology, and housing and urban–rural development, making coordination highly complex. Moreover, unified standards for multi‑energy complementarity in new energy systems and for virtual power plant operations remain lacking, and cross‑provincial mechanisms for accommodating renewable generation are still incomplete. In addition, hydrogen storage is costly, control system algorithms are intricate, and data security in virtual power plants continues to require breakthroughs. Coupled with constraints on land use and resource allocation—such as photovoltaic deployment in mining areas, offshore wind power, and the integrated development of subsidence‑prone lands—clear delineations of land‑use designations and maritime‑use rights are urgently needed. These challenges underscore that, in the “second half” of the new‑energy transition, competition will hinge less on sheer capital investment and more on organizational prowess and the ability to integrate technologies.

V. Strategic Recommendations for Three Types of Enterprises: How to Seize Opportunities in the “Second Half”?

In the future, the new‑energy industry will no longer judge success by “kilowatt‑hours of installed capacity”; instead, it will hinge on who better understands system integration and who can deliver greater “per‑kWh value” within the energy system—this is a message that Zonghe Nengtan Ji Fu Service’s Qiang Ge has been emphasizing since the first half of the year.

Written at the end

Over the past decade, we have addressed the question of “whether or not it exists”; in the next decade, the focus will shift to ensuring that it is “good and easy to use.”

“Integration and convergence” is not merely additive; it represents a cross‑industry reconfiguration—transforming new energy from a term exclusive to the power sector into a foundational energy source shared across manufacturing, the data industry, transportation, and the chemical and metallurgical sectors.

The “second half” of the new‑energy industry will be a truly system‑level contest.

Whoever masters the ability to integrate, think across disciplines, and manage operations in a systematic way will be invincible in this green revolution.