Traditional transmission-planning approaches often account inadequately for areas that are high in renewable energy resources but far from population centers. However, China is taking a proactive approach to planning for renewable energy generation and transmission. As part of its process for planning the development of eight high-capacity wind development regions or “bases” throughout its provinces, China is also assessing the transmission needed to transmit wind-generated power to distant load centers. China’s wind development activities align with its broader goal of achieving 250 GW of wind power by 2020. In addition, renewable energy development is a major action within China’s INDC, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 64%–70% below 2005 levels by 2030. Key actions and good practices that can support wind power development are highlighted below and included in the case study.

• Coordination of wind energy development with future transmission planning can enable higher penetrations of renewable energy in the grid.
• Development of renewable energy bases or zones can support transmission extension to areas farther from the grid with high renewable energy resource availability.
• Development of renewable energy bases and coordination with transmission planning can also send a clear signal to renewable energy project developers to enable investment.