China's Steam Turbine Industry Green and Intelligent Transformation Pioneers a New Future for Equipment Manufacturing

Jointly issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State Administration for Market Regulation, and the National Energy Administration, the "Work Plan for Stabilizing Growth in the Power Equipment Industry (2025-2026)" clearly identifies steam turbines as a core category of power equipment for key support. It proposes to enhance the supply capacity of high-efficiency and clean steam turbines, make breakthroughs in key core technologies such as high-temperature materials and intelligent control, and coordinate the upgrading of traditional thermal power with the development of clean energy equipment, charting a clear path for the industry's development. The concurrently issued "Implementation Opinions on Promoting the High-Quality Development of 'Artificial Intelligence + Energy'" lists "AI + Thermal Power" as a key area, promoting the deep integration of technologies like big data and the Internet of Things with steam turbines to accelerate the pace of intelligent transformation in the industry.

Amid sustained policy dividends and the demand for energy structure adjustment, China's steam turbine industry is showing steady growth. Data indicates that the current market size of China's steam turbine industry exceeds 50 billion yuan, having reached 36.403 billion yuan in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate maintained between 5% and 7%. Notably, the nuclear power steam turbine sector has seen particularly outstanding growth. China has become the world's largest single market for nuclear power steam turbines, with its market share rising to 35% of the global total in 2025. The batch deployment of third-generation nuclear power units like Hualong One and Guohe One has driven the continuous increase in the localization rate of nuclear power steam turbine technology. Concurrently, there is strong demand for the upgrading and retrofitting of traditional thermal power. Deep peak-shaving retrofit projects are being intensively implemented in regions like East China and North China, with the related retrofit market size exceeding 50 billion yuan in 2025, injecting sustained incremental demand into the industry.

Green and intelligent transformation has become the core theme of industry development, with leading companies taking the lead in exploration and practice, forming replicable development models. In green manufacturing, Harbin Electric Turbine Co., Ltd. successfully became the industry's first five-star zero-carbon factory. By scaling up the application of green power, innovating low-carbon welding technology, and establishing an energy and carbon management center, it has built a "whole-process + whole-chain" carbon reduction system, achieving coordinated carbon reduction at the energy source, process, and management levels. Dongfang Turbine Co., Ltd. has built the country's first green and efficient welding digital workshop. Utilizing intelligent technologies like narrow-gap automatic welding and 5G data acquisition, it has realized a "zero-defect, zero-deformation, zero-emission" "triple-zero" model, increasing product qualification rates to nearly 100% and tripling per capita productivity. Through intelligent workshop transformation, Shanghai Turbine Plant has achieved paperless production, increased capacity by 25%, and reduced processing time for some procedures by 40% to 50%, significantly enhancing green, low-carbon production efficiency.

Breakthroughs have also been made in intelligent upgrading, with the industry's "intelligent transformation and digital transition" accelerating comprehensively. The "lights-out production line" in the blade manufacturing branch of Dongfang Turbine achieves 24-hour uninterrupted, unmanned machining with a precision of 0.03mm, tripling blade output and increasing per capita efficiency by 650%. Harbin Electric Turbine has established a digital machining and assembly workshop. Relying on AI tools for remote operation, maintenance, and intelligent monitoring, it enables real-time visualization of equipment operation data, production progress, and quality information, greatly improving management efficiency. Shanghai Electric integrates mechanistic models with AI algorithms to build equipment condition monitoring and performance optimization systems, providing customers with precise operation and maintenance services and reducing lifecycle costs. Meanwhile, industry standards like DL/T 2925-2025 "Technical Requirements for Grid Connection of Steam Turbine Governing Systems" have been formally implemented. These standards unify the grid-connection characteristic requirements for governing systems of thermal power steam turbines with 300MW capacity and above, providing technical guidance for the coordinated operation of governing systems with the power grid and strengthening the foundation for standardized industry development.

The trend of coordinated industrial chain development is significant, with the process of high-end equipment localization accelerating. Breakthroughs have been achieved in key areas such as high-temperature alloy blades, electro-hydraulic control systems, and digital twin control systems, breaking foreign monopolies. Driven by specialized policies in the marine power equipment sector, the localization rate of marine steam turbines continues to rise, reaching the 2025 target of 78.3%. Increased subsidy ratios for high-efficiency steam turbine power systems on ocean-going merchant ships over 100,000 tons are driving optimization of the industrial chain structure. Progress has also been made in the R&D of specialized steam turbines for high-end fields like nuclear power and offshore wind power, with product performance reaching internationally advanced levels, supporting the "going global" strategy.

Looking ahead, as the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals deepen and the construction of the new power system accelerates, the steam turbine industry will embrace broader development space. The industry will continue to focus on the core directions of high efficiency, intelligence, and green development. It aims to break through key technologies like ultra-supercritical steam turbines and steam turbines for advanced energy storage systems, promoting the parallel development of traditional equipment upgrades and new equipment R&D. Furthermore, leveraging the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese steam turbine enterprises will further expand into emerging markets in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, promoting the export of the entire chain of technology, products, and services, achieving steady annual export growth.

A relevant official from the China Steam Turbine Industry Association stated that the industry will use policies as a guide, innovation as the driving force, and green development as the foundation. It will deepen collaborative cooperation within the industrial chain, strengthen core technology breakthroughs, accelerate the pace of green and intelligent transformation, and strive to build a globally competitive industrial cluster, contributing greater strength to national energy security and the building of a strong manufacturing nation.