On May 14, 2025, the kick-off and implementation plan review meeting for the National Key R&D Program "Renewable Energy Technology" key special project — "Key Technologies and Software Development for Wind Farm Planning and Design in Multiple Scenarios" — was successfully held in Beijing. The project is led by China Renewable Energy Engineering Institute Co., Ltd., with Professor Liu Yongqian of North China Electric Power University serving as project leader. The industry-academia-research project team comprises 10 institutions: North China Electric Power University, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Hohai University, Tsinghua University, Longyuan Power Group Co., Ltd., China Three Gorges Corporation, PowerChina Northwest Engineering Corporation Limited, PowerChina Zhongnan Engineering Corporation Limited, and the Shanghai Typhoon Institute of the China Meteorological Administration.

Vice President of China Renewable Energy Engineering InstituteZhang Yiguofirst introduced the background and significance of the project. In recent years, under the guidance of national policies and the joint efforts of the industry, China's wind power industry has achieved remarkable accomplishments. As of the end of March 2025, China's cumulative installed wind power capacity has reached 535 million kilowatts, ranking first in the world for many consecutive years. At present, China's planning and design software relies heavily on foreign commercial software and has not yet achieved independent controllability. Against this background, the project aims to break through key technologies for wind farm planning and design in multiple scenarios, independently develop a wind farm planning and micro-siting software system that can broadly adapt to various development scenarios and deeply integrate advanced artificial intelligence algorithms, and achieve large-scale application and promotion across the entire industry.

Issuing expert appointment letters

The project established a project advisory expert group, including Liu Jizhen, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, professor and former president of North China Electric Power University; Chen Deliang, foreign academician of the Chinese Academy ofSciences and professor at Tsinghua University; Zhang Zongliang, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and chief scientist of Power Construction Corporation of China; Professor Zhu Caichao, assistant to the president and member of the Party Committee of Chongqing University; Ma Wenyong, deputy chief engineer of Shanghai Electric Wind Power Group; Chen Xiaohai, consultant of Goldwind Science & Technology Co., Ltd.; Professor Wang Tongguang of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics; Li Qing'an, researcher at the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Dong Delan, consultant of PowerChina Northwest Engineering Corporation Limited; Zhao Shengxiao, consultant of PowerChina Huadong Engineering Corporation Limited; Tian Jingkui, consultant of North China Power Engineering Co., Ltd. of China Power Engineering Consulting Group; Qi Zhicheng, deputy chief engineer of PowerChina Beijing Engineering Corporation Limited; Qin Ming, director of the New Energy Technology Innovation Center of the Science and Technology Research Institute of China Three Gorges Corporation; and Zhao Haitao, senior accountant of Zhongxi Certified Public Accountants. At the kick-off meeting, appointment letters were issued to the attending experts. Academician Liu Jizhen serves as the head of the expert group, and Deputy Chief Engineer Ma Wenyong and Consultant Chen Xiaohai serve as responsible experts. Subsequently, project leaderProfessor Liu Yongqiangave a detailed report on the overall project implementation plan. The leaders of each research task also introduced the specific technical routes and implementation plans of their respective tasks in turn and reported on relevant research progress.

After discussion and questioning, the experts affirmed the technical routes, time nodes, and task division of the project and its research tasks, agreed to approve the implementation plan, and at the same time put forward constructive suggestions such as further improving the project implementation plan with software development as the driving force and optimizing project organization and management. The project leader expressed gratitude for the opinions of the expert group and stated that the team would certainly live up to the expectations of the experts and all sectors of the industry and deliver a satisfactory result to the country.

Speeches by consulting experts and the project team

At the end of the project kick-off meeting, Academician Liu Jizhen delivered a summary. The project team should attach full importance to the guiding significance of the experts' advisory opinions for breaking through key technologies in wind farm planning and design and for software development. Academician Liu also expressed earnest expectations for the project, believing that the project is highly innovative and of great significance to the high-quality development of China's wind power industry. The project team must attach importance to software development, grasp the key points, break through the key technologies of the software, and create a professional, general-purpose, and independently controllable wind farm planning and design software.

Group photo of the project kick-off and implementation plan review meeting