China has outlined a new five-year industrial roadmap for solar, batteries and energy electronics, combining support for next-generation technologies with tighter controls on manufacturing capacity and price competition.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) released the Electronic Information Manufacturing Industry Development 15th Five-Year Plan on Sept. 15. The document covers the 2026-30 period and identifies energy electronics as a potential source of growth for China’s electronics manufacturing industry.

The plan calls for closer coordination among solar, energy storage, end-use equipment and information technologies. It also sets out detailed technology roadmaps for PV and batteries, although it includes no specific manufacturing capacity or deployment targets for either sector.

For solar, Beijing wants manufacturers to continue improving high-efficiency crystalline silicon technology while accelerating the development and commercialization of perovskite tandem cells. The plan also calls for lower-energy production of high-purity polysilicon, larger and thinner wafers, more reliable module encapsulation and increasingly intelligent PV modules. It targets inverters, controllers and tracking systems for further digitalization and intelligent upgrades.

The document identifies perovskite materials, polyolefin elastomers and high-purity quartz sand as materials requiring further development and wider application.

It also targets markets beyond conventional utility-scale and distributed PV. The government wants to expand applications such as space-based and offshore solar, while encouraging emerging business models that combine PV generation with hydrogen, ammonia and methanol production.

For batteries, the plan says China should consolidate its competitive position in lithium-ion technology while advancing the industrialization of solid-state, sodium-ion and flow batteries, as well as fuel cells.

Policymakers called for the development and commercialization of high-energy-density solid-state batteries and low-cost, long-life sodium-ion batteries. They also identified solid electrolytes, silicon-carbon anodes, high-capacity cathode materials and composite current collectors as development priorities.

The roadmap extends beyond battery cells. It calls for improvements in power electronics and high-power converters, more efficient battery energy storage system integration and more precise control systems. The government also wants to advance storage management based on device-edge-cloud architectures and improve thermal management technologies, including phase-change materials, heat pipes and heat pumps.

The more significant policy shift, however, is on the supply side.

The plan calls for coordinated manufacturing capacity planning across industries, capacity early-warning mechanisms and comprehensive measures to address what Chinese policymakers describe as “involution-style” competition. It also seeks stronger safety management in the lithium-ion battery industry and better management of retired lithium batteries and PV modules.

The policy direction is not entirely new. Energy electronics guidelines published by six government bodies in 2023 already supported perovskite and tandem solar cells, along with solid-state, sodium-ion and flow batteries. The guidelines also warned manufacturers against excess capacity and “disorderly competition.”