AS the conflict in Iran threatens to choke off oil and gas supplies from the Persian Gulf, China is seizing the moment to extend its dominance in wind power.
Across China, hilltops are dotted with wind turbines, and long rows of them span many kilometres in western deserts.
Ultra high-voltage power lines carry electricity miles to the energy-hungry factories along China’s coast thousands of kilometres away.
Last year, China installed three times as much wind power capacity as the rest of the world combined, even as its turbine exports jumped. The global industry’s centre of gravity has shifted decisively: all of the world’s six largest wind turbine manufacturers are Chinese, displacing once-dominant European firms and companies like General Electric.
The conflict has made China’s investments in wind look prescient.
Its Asian neighbours, long reliant on Middle Eastern oil and gas, are struggling to secure fuel supplies.
Meanwhile, China, with its massive reserves and modern electric grid, is better positioned to weather the energy crisis.
The contrast with the United States is stark. Under President Donald Trump, energy policy has swung back towards oil and natural gas. In the past 10 weeks, the Trump administration has moved to spend nearly US$2bil reimbursing energy companies for abandoning plans to build offshore wind farms.
Last month, a leading renewable energy industry group said the administration has stalled more than 150 wind farm projects by delaying military reviews once considered routine.
The United States, the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas, has the luxury of relying on fossil fuels.
China, the largest importer, does not. It is moving to reduce its exposure, motivated by concerns over national security, economic stability and climate change.
With the Strait of Hormuz, a critical artery for oil and gas shipments, largely closed, China’s top leaders have grown more emphatic.
“Energy is a strategic issue in development – our pioneering development of wind power and solar technology has proved to be forward-looking,” Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, said in late March, three weeks after US and Israeli attacks on Iran began. Unlike solar projects, which can be built quickly, wind power demands long-term planning and patience. Chinese officials have both in abundance.
Each wind turbine tower requires a large concrete foundation. Turbine installation depends on stretches of calm weather in windy locations.
In China, large solar power farms can rise in less than a year, while wind projects can take up to three years, said Sebastian Meyer, a long-time renewable energy consultant who specialises in China. Solar installations for homes, shopping malls and factories are even faster.
Panels can be unboxed and installed almost immediately in China and other countries with few restrictions.
Wind is different.
“Wind projects can have a really long development time horizon compared to solar,” Meyer said.
China is now racing to build offshore wind turbines, which tend to catch steadier breezes and sit much closer to coastal power users than desert turbines do.
The push has faced little public resistance because of strong government backing. Even though local residents complain, they have little power to stop projects from moving forward.
“The noise from these turbines is quite loud,” said Wang Cuifen, who lives on a small farm outside Yancheng, near the base of towering turbines in a tidal zone.
“They run non-stop from around 4pm to 4am, and it affects our rest.”
China’s early offshore projects were relatively simple in tidal areas or shallow waters near Weifang and Yancheng in northern coastal China. That is now changing. In April, China Huaneng Group, one of the country’s five main power generators, completed the country’s deepest offshore wind project. A new array of turbines sits 72km off the coast of Yantai in northern China, set in waters 60m deep.
In a speech last July, Xi urged China to “promote the orderly and well-regulated expansion of offshore wind power”.
Wind supplied 10% of China’s electricity last year, a share that is growing about one percentage point annually.
Coal still accounts for just over half, but its share is slipping a couple of percentage points each year.
China is ramping up wind equipment exports in a hurry, unnerving competitors in the West and India.
Exports of wind turbines and components to the European Union jumped 66% last year, while shipments to developing countries in China’s Belt and Road Initiative climbed 74%.
Chinese manufacturers, led by Envision Energy, are also gaining ground in India.
Buoyed by tax incentives and government support, the country vies with the United States as the world’s second-largest wind market, after China.
Envision now rivals Suzlon Energy, India’s main wind turbine manufacturer, on its home turf.
The stand-off in Iran and the resulting spike in oil and natural gas prices have accelerated demand. — ©2026 The New York Times Company
This article originally appeared in The New York Times
