Enhancing the understanding of China's wind power development: Spatial-temporal dynamics and determinants from a whole industry chain perspective

As China's wind power industry shifts from scale expansion toward value enhancement, improving development performance increasingly depends on coordination across segments of the industry chain. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of China's wind power development (CWPD) from a whole industry chain perspective, covering innovation, investment, production and consumption. Using exploratory spatial data analysis and the geographical detector model, this study examines the spatial-temporal characteristics and key determinants of CWPD from 2005 to 2021. Results show that: (1) At the national level, spatial agglomeration in investment, production and consumption has generally weakened over time, while innovation has shown a renewed tendency toward spatial concentration; (2) Spatially, CWPD follows a pattern characterized by the coastal concentration of innovation, resource-driven investment and production in northern regions, and demand-oriented consumption in eastern regions. However, the persistent separation among innovation, deployment, and demand centers leads to structural mismatches along the industry chain; (3) Wind resource endowment shapes the spatial-temporal patterns, while GDP, green finance, and urbanization further intensify agglomeration. Economic policy uncertainty and environmental regulations serve as external driving forces for the transformation of spatial-temporal characteristics, while technology acts as an internal driving force. Based on these findings, this study advises Chinese policymakers to facilitate a shift from capacity-oriented expansion toward coordinated whole industry chain planning, prioritizing a short-term emphasis on local absorption and system integration in wind-rich regions, a medium-term focus on cross-regional grid and market coordination, and long-term strategies promoting functional complementarity among innovation, deployment, and consumption centers. • The spatial-temporal dynamics of China's wind power development are mapped and analyzed. • The determinants of the spatial-temporal differentiation in China's wind power development are identified. • China needs to promote the coordinated spatial development of activities across the whole wind power industry chain.