China’s International Clean Energy Expo Unveils Integrated Development Blueprint of "Optical, Storage, Hydrogen, Electricity and AI"

The 16th China International Clean Energy Expo, hosted by the China Electricity Council and other organizations, has recently been held in Beijing. The expo has set up four professional exhibitions, outlining a development picture of in-depth integration of "optics, storage, hydrogen, electricity and artificial intelligence" in the energy transition process.

The four professional exhibitions include the 2nd China PV Innovation Exhibition, the 4th China Energy Storage Conference and Exhibition, the 2026 China Hydrogen Energy Exhibition and the 2026 China New Energy Artificial Intelligence Exhibition, which comprehensively demonstrate the latest achievements and development trends of the clean energy industry.

Globally, the clean energy industry has shifted from single technological breakthroughs and single-category development to full industrial chain collaborative innovation and multi-energy complementary system development. Artificial intelligence plays an important role in this process, which needs to deeply empower the whole chain, integrate into core energy businesses, carry out integration pilots and standard construction, and promote the transformation of the energy and power system towards digital intelligence-driven development.

For the first time, the expo has set up the 2026 China New Energy Artificial Intelligence Application Exhibition. Unitree Technology has brought quadruped robots that can provide a complete set of solutions for enterprise automated inspections. DeepBrain AI has launched intelligent inspection solutions for quadruped robots, which can be applied to all types of energy scenarios such as substations, photovoltaic power stations, wind farms, oil and gas stations, energy storage power stations and power plants to jointly complete high-risk inspection work. Artificial intelligence is reshaping the mode of power station operation and maintenance, making the combination of computing power and electricity tangible.

At the PV Innovation Exhibition, participating enterprises focused on "large base construction" and "PV-storage integration", displaying high-efficiency battery module technologies and integration solutions. At the China Energy Storage Conference and Exhibition, participating enterprises showed diverse technologies such as electrochemical energy storage and physical energy storage, with a focus on presenting various "energy storage +" scenario-based applications and power grid interaction solutions.

Focusing on the large-scale application of green hydrogen in chemical industry, metallurgy, transportation and other scenarios, the China Hydrogen Energy Exhibition demonstrated the trend that green hydrogen is accelerating from "technically feasible" to "economically feasible". With the successive implementation of demonstration projects such as "green hydrogen absorbing green electricity and coupling to produce green fuels", the process of industrial decarbonization has been accelerated.

At the China Promotion and Exchange Activity of the 27th World Energy Congress held during the expo, it was stated that new energy in China has historically surpassed thermal power to become the largest power source, with the proportion of new wind and photovoltaic installed capacity exceeding 80% in 2025. The China Electricity Council will organize Chinese enterprises to participate in exhibitions and contribute to promoting global energy transition.