San'ao Nuclear Power Plant in Cangnan county, Wenzhou, Zhejiang province. [Photo provided by CGN Cangnan Nuclear Power Co Ltd]

Unit 1 of the San'ao Nuclear Power Plant in Cangnan county, Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, was connected to the national grid for the first time on March 12, marking the first grid-connected nuclear power project in China with minority private capital participation.

The project is being developed by China General Nuclear Power Corporation. The San'ao plant is planned to host six Hualong One units, a domestically developed third-generation nuclear reactor design, with a total investment of about 120 billion yuan ($17.42 billion).

Geely Technology Group invested in the first phase of the project in 2020, taking a 2 percent stake. The company has since joined other private firms in the second phase, raising the combined share of private capital to 10 percent.

Xu Bing, vice-president of Geely Technology Group, said the company has previously participated in several mixed-ownership reform projects with State-owned enterprises in Zhejiang and Guangxi, with many of those projects showing improved operational performance.

Zhejiang, one of China's leading private-sector economies, has been encouraging private firms to participate in major infrastructure projects, including highways, railways, and nuclear power plants. The province's 2026 economic policy framework states that private capital should hold at least a 10 percent stake in eligible major projects such as offshore wind power, water conservancy, and nuclear energy that require provincial-level or higher approval.

The policy approach is gaining traction nationwide. In the past two years, 20 private enterprises have taken stakes in newly approved nuclear power projects in China. In 2025, the private capital share in each project increased to between 10 percent and 20 percent.

Once all six units at the San'ao plant are operational, the project is expected to generate more than 54 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually. That output could meet the yearly power demand of more than 5 million people, while reducing coal consumption by over 16.35 million metric tons and cutting carbon emissions by about 50 million metric tons each year.