Xin Baoan, chairman of China’s State Grid Corporation said this week he will invest 520 billion yuan into transmission in 2023, and 2.23 trillion yuan through the entire 2021-2025 14th Five-Year Plan period, which is to say $77 billion and $329 billion respectively. The other major electric utility is China Southern Power Grid, whose contribution of $99 billion, together with some regional companies, brings the national total investment to $442 billion over five years. State Grid’s investment last year was already $74 billion, and $73 billion all the way back in 2016 – but a rapid year-on-year increase can be expected from now on, based on the accelerated scale of renewable energy development. Per Xin’s words, one-quarter of electricity consumed…