Page 36 - AJWEP-22-4

Asian Journal of Water, Environment and Pollution. Vol. 22, No. 4 (2025), pp. 28-40.
doi: 10.36922/AJWEP025190147

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Spatiotemporal variability and climate
forcing mechanisms of wind and solar energy in

northwest China

Shuyue Qin 1† , Bingyue Wen * , Wei Bao , Xuexian Wang , Zihan Yang ,
1
1
2
1†
Ruei-Yuan Wang , Hongbei Guo , Dongping Yu , Yanfang Jin , Yunxia Ma ,
4
3
5
1
1
and Taohui Li *
2
1 Unit of Sino-British Cooperative, School of International Business, Yunnan University of Finance and
Economics, Kunming, Yunnan, China
2 Yunnan Key Laboratory of Meteorological Disasters and Climate Resources in the Greater Mekong Subregion,
School of Earth Science, Yunnan University, Kunming, Yunnan, China
3 Department of Geography, School of Science, Guangdong University of Petrochemical Technology,
Maoming, Guangdong, China
4 Department of Marxism, School of Marxism, Southwest Forestry University, Kunming, Yunnan, China
5 Yunnan Key Laboratory of Plateau Geographic Processes and Environmental Change, Faculty of Geography, Yunnan
Normal University, Kunming, Yunnan, China
*Corresponding authors: Bingyue Wen (wenbingyue@ynufe.edu.cn)
Taohui Li (taohui0813@foxmail.com)
† These authors contributed equally to this work.

Received: May 8, 2025; Revised: May 30, 2025; Accepted: June 5, 2025; Published online: July 2, 2025

Abstract: As a pivotal region for China’s wind and solar energy strategic deployment, northwest China holds
critical importance in the national energy transition. Our integrated analysis reveals concerning multidecadal
declines in wind energy resources (WER) and solar energy resources (SER) – climate-sensitive parameters
requiring urgent mechanistic elucidation. Through the synergistic application of meteorological station
networks, reanalysis datasets, and machine learning architectures, we establish three key findings: (i) both
resources demonstrate regime shifts with distinct phases – initial growth, transitional decline, and accelerated
depletion – superimposed with significant 29 – 30-year oscillation signals (wavelet analysis); (ii) WER and
SER display marked differences in spatial evolution; WER shows an increasing trend from south to north,
while SER shows a decreasing trend from the central region to the surrounding areas; and (iii) the main
controlling factors of WER have shifted from air–sea cycle dominance to inter-regional climate variability,
while SER exhibits the opposite trend. This is mainly attributed to a significant reduction in cloud cover and
a marked decrease in the rate of increase of the daily maximum temperature. This study demonstrates that
synoptic-scale circulation reorganizations override local anthropogenic impacts in determining the viability of
renewable energy resources.

Keywords: Global warming; Wind energy resources; Solar energy resources; Spatiotemporal characteristics;
Driving mechanism

Volume 22 Issue 4 (2025) 28 doi: 10.36922/AJWEP025190147