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This document describes the development of detailed high-resolution (1 km2) wind energy resource maps
for specific regions of eastern China. These maps were created at the United States Department of
Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) as part of the Solar and Wind Energy Resource
Assessment (SWERA) project for the United Nations Environment Programme. The wind mapping
activity covered vast areas of eastern China totaling about 2.7 million km2 of land area and more than 3
million km2 including offshore areas. These areas included much of Inner Mongolia, northeastern China,
coastal and offshore areas of northern, central, and southern China, Hainan Island, and the Poyang Lake
and Three Gorges areas of south-central China. For presentation of the maps and discussion of the wind
resource, we divided the areas mapped into 15 regions. The maps can be found in a separate part of the
SWERA archive.
NREL’s Wind Resource Assessment and Mapping System (WRAMS) is a combination of analytical,
numerical, and empirical methods using Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping tools and data
sets. In the sections below, we discuss the data sets, analysis methods, and mapping system used by
NREL to perform the China wind mapping activity. We also present the results of the wind resource
assessment, highlighting the major wind resource areas identified and providing confirmation of the
resource estimates with available measurement data. Finally, we present estimates of the wind electric
potential for the mapped land areas of China and each province.