Evaluating the performance of wind farms in China: An empirical review

•The 610 wind farms in China are as research target.•The hidden problems are explored in the sustainable development of wind energy in China.•The performance of a wind farm is explored by the factors such as the resource area, region, and scale.

China is now the world leader in wind power with total installed capacity and its strong policy support. In this paper, we take the 610 wind farms located in China as an example and explore the relationships between a wind farm’s operational performance and several key factors, i.e., resource area, regional location, and scale. Our empirical results imply that policy and approval of wind farms may affect performance of wind farms, leading to large difference on performance of wind farms in different provinces of China.