China will start construction on more than 200 pumped-storage hydropower plants with a combined capacity of 270 GW by 2025, according to Chinese company Power Construction Corporation of China. This project would be enough to meet around 23% of China’s peak demand, as well as being a sharp increase from the 14th 5-year plan released in March 2022, i.e. 62 GW of operational pumped-storage hydropower capacity and 60 GW more under construction by 2025.
Hydro currently accounts for 16% of China’s installed capacity with 391 GW and 16% of its power generation with 1 340 TWh (2021). Pumped-storage hydro capacity though reached 36.4 GW in 2021, and to reach a 270 GW objective by 2025, China will have to multiply its capacity by 7.5 in only 4 years.