Laizhou, a county-level city in Yantai, East China's Shandong province, is moving fast to reshape its industrial landscape through new energy, injecting fresh momentum into the city's green and low-carbon development.

At the heart of this transformation is the Wanhua Green Electricity Industrial Park, a key project in Wanhua Group's plan to "build another new Wanhua". The company has identified battery materials as its second core business, aiming to become a global leader in innovation. Once completed, the park will help form an industrial ecosystem with an annual production capacity of 50 gigawatt-hours of power battery cells, 1.15 million metric tons of lithium iron phosphate cathode materials, and 300,000 tons of graphite anode materials.

Laizhou has demonstrated remarkable efficiency in project execution. After first engaging with Wanhua Group on Oct 23, 2025, the city completed all negotiations and signed the agreement in just 40 days. A dedicated task force has since resolved over 70 bottlenecks through more than 140 coordination meetings, ensuring smooth progress toward the March 17 construction launch.

With an estimated 10 gigawatts of exploitable solar and wind capacity, Laizhou is well-positioned for new energy development. The city is now developing a 20-billion-yuan ($2.75 billion) new energy industrial cluster and has been named a provincial pilot zone for green and low-carbon transformation — steadily shaping its role in Yantai's sustainable energy future.