Exploring the sustainable growth pathway of wind power in China: Using the semiparametric regression model

China not only faces severe energy shortages, but also enormous pressure to reduce CO₂ emissions. The objective of this article is to explore effective pathways and policies to promote wind power development in China. The interesting results include: (1) the impact of environmental regulations and green finance on wind power is nonlinear. Specifically, environmental regulations exert an inverted U-shaped impact in the central and eastern regions, and a U-shaped effect in the western region. (2) Green finance produces a U-shaped impact on wind power in the eastern region, and an N-shaped effect in the central and western regions. The impact of other economic factors shows a linear pattern. (3) Urbanization has the greatest impact on wind power in the central region, because of greater investment in technological talents and faster growth in high-tech industries. (4) Green technology innovation has made the greatest contribution to wind power in the western region, because of the rapidly growing green energy technology. (5) Financial decentralization has the smaller driving effect on wind power development in the eastern region, due to small financial investment. (6) Wind power prices have a driving effect on wind power development in the western region, but not played a driving role in the central and eastern regions. Finally, this article proposes promoting policies based on estimated results.