Stable energy supply with high quality infrastructure is vital for sustainable energy consumption and inclusive growth. In this paper, we develop empirical methods to evaluate the extent to what energy infrastructure improvement towards inclusive growth, which help guide policy development to achieve Sustainable Development Goals. By investigating the national-scale energy infrastructure improvement project in rural China, we identify the general and inclusive effect of income growth attributed to improved quality of energy infrastructure. The results show that energy infrastructure improvement contributes to rural income increase up to 69 Chinese renminbi (RMB) a year and narrows the income gap by 10 RMB for residents originally with an income difference of 100 RMB. The inclusive growth effect is pronounced in the eastern region, for the poor, for the educated, and becomes remarkable over time. Energy infrastructure improvement leads to income inclusive growth through abundant working time in the eastern and western regions, and general income growth in the middle region through individual health condition. Continuous efforts to energy infrastructure improvement and investments in education and work trainings, especially in the middle and western regions, are critical to achieve inclusive growth.