How to Check Wind Farm Micrositing: the Chinese Standards (NB/T 10103-2025 Replacing the 2018 Edition from 18 June 2026, NB/T 31147-2018 Resource Measurement, GB/T 18710-2002), IEC 61400-15-1:2025 Site Suitability, IEC 61400-1 Turbine Classes, and the 2026 Forest/Grassland and Ecological Red-Line Rules That Fix Where Turbines May Not Go

Short answer. A micrositing report for a Chinese wind farm dated after 18 June 2026 should cite NB/T 10103-2025 风电场工程微观选址技术规范, published 18 December 2025 and effective 18 June 2026 for onshore and offshore projects, not NB/T 10103-2018, which the National Library of Standards records as withdrawn from the same date. The wind data behind it come from measurement and assessment under NB/T 31147-2018 (onshore) and GB/T 18710-2002; both national standards platforms showed NB/T 31147-2018 as current on the retrieval date, and the SAMR/SAC record lists two 2026 national-standard plans carrying the same titles as GB/T 18710-2002 and GB/T 18709-2002. Internationally, IEC 61400-15-1:2025 frames the site-suitability inputs (long-term wind and meteorological characteristics, integration with turbine and plant characteristics, environmental extremes, traceable reporting) without superseding the design requirements of IEC 61400-1. The layout must also respect land rules: the January 2026 NFGA–NEA notice prohibits new or expanded wind farms in ecological red lines, protected natural areas, important wetlands and the forest land and grassland of key state-owned forest areas, and requires foundations, roads, substations and collector lines to avoid national public-benefit arbor forest, arbor forest in areas with annual precipitation of 400 mm or less, basic grassland and wildlife habitats and corridors. None of the standards' clauses was read for this guide; it cites records, abstracts and the policy texts.

1. The Chinese standards stack

CNWattHub reading: for a report dated 2026 the two questions are whether it names the 2025 micrositing code (or explains why the 2018 edition still applied at the date of design), and which resource standard the measurement campaign followed — with the two national-standard plans in view, a buyer should check the live records for any new edition.

2. The IEC frame

IEC 61400-15-1:2025 defines a framework for assessing and reporting wind turbine suitability conditions for onshore and offshore plants: definition, measurement and prediction of the long-term meteorological and wind-flow characteristics at the site; their integration with turbine and balance-of-plant characteristics; characterisation of environmental extremes and other plant design drivers; and documentation and reporting for traceability. It complements the IEC 61400 series by defining environmental input conditions and is not intended to supersede the design and suitability requirements of IEC 61400-1, -2, -3-1 or TS 61400-3-2, whose analytical procedures are outside its scope. IEC 61400-1:2019 is the design standard it feeds: it specifies essential design requirements for structural integrity against all hazards during the planned lifetime, applies to turbines of all sizes, and its 2019 edition extended the turbine classes to allow for tropical cyclones and high turbulence. After construction, IEC 61400-12-1:2022 specifies the power-performance measurement procedure for a single grid-connected turbine and requires the measured power curve and derived energy figures to carry an assessment of uncertainty sources and their combined effects.

CNWattHub reading: a micrositing package that states site conditions in IEC 61400-15-1 terms, matches them to the turbine's IEC 61400-1 class, and anticipates a 61400-12-1 power-curve test is one whose assumptions can later be checked.

3. Where turbines may not go: the 2026 land rules

The January 2026 NFGA–NEA notice (effective on issue, valid to 31 December 2030) sets the current land frame for layouts:

• Priority areas. Siting first in deserts, Gobi and barren land, with intensive and combined use of space encouraged.
• No-build. No new or expanded wind farms inside ecological red lines, protected natural areas, important wetlands or the forest land and grassland of key state-owned forest areas.
• Avoidance. Turbine foundations, construction and maintenance roads, substations and collector lines, including temporary use, must avoid arbor forest land in national public-benefit forests (including young plantations and cut-over land), arbor forest land in areas with annual precipitation of 400 mm or less, basic grassland, and important wildlife habitats and migration corridors and other aggregation areas; where a wildlife area cannot be avoided a strict assessment and measures such as wildlife passages are required; basic grassland may be occupied only by national major projects that demonstrably cannot avoid it.
• Existing farms. Lawfully built farms already inside red lines or protected areas are in principle not repowered; lawfully built ones in important wetlands, key state-owned forest areas' forest land and grassland and basic grassland outside them may be repowered on an intensive, economical basis and must exit in order when their land term ends, with ecological restoration.
• Roads and fire. Use existing roads where possible; construction roads shown by assessment to be unrestorable must go through permanent forest/grassland use procedures together with the maintenance roads; forest and grassland fire-fighting facilities are planned, designed, built and accepted with the project.
• Transition. Projects approved or filed before the notice was issued may follow their land pre-examination opinion for grassland but may not enlarge the area; projects pre-examined but not yet approved follow the new rules.

The notice follows the 2019 NFGA notice, which by its own terms was valid to 28 February 2024: that document listed natural heritage sites, national parks, nature reserves, forest, wetland and geological parks, scenic areas, main bird migration corridors and stop-over sites and coastal shelterbelts as no-build zones, barred foundations, roads, substations and collector lines from natural arbor forest (bamboo) land, forested land where annual rainfall is 400 mm or less and class-I and forested class-II national public-benefit forest, and asked forestry departments to get involved early in wind measurement and siting. CNWattHub reading: the 2026 notice's transitional clause covers earlier-approved projects only as to grassland, and its forest avoidance list is worded differently from the 2019 list (arbor forest in national public-benefit forests, rather than class I and forested class II), so a 2019-era layout should be re-read against the 2026 text.

The 2022 ecological red-line notice (trial) is the layer beneath both: development and production construction is prohibited inside red lines outside protected-area core zones, with only listed limited activities allowed; scattered existing hydro, wind, solar and ocean-energy facilities may not expand and must be restored at project end; and listed national major projects that cannot avoid a red line (excluding new sea reclamation and new island use) go through MNR land/sea pre-examination and State Council approval, with a provincial unavoidability opinion attached to the land or sea-use application.

4. A review sequence built from the sources

CNWattHub's reading of the sources as a checklist:

1. Governing standard and date. NB/T 10103-2025 for designs after 18 June 2026; otherwise the 2018 edition with the design date shown.
2. Resource data provenance. Which measurement and assessment standard the campaign followed; whether any new national-standard edition under the two 2026 plans has appeared.
3. Site conditions in IEC terms. Long-term wind and meteorological characteristics, extremes and design drivers reported traceably, and matched to the turbine's IEC 61400-1 class (including any tropical-cyclone or high-turbulence class).
4. Land overlay. Each turbine, road, substation and collector line checked against ecological red lines, protected areas, important wetlands, key state-owned forest areas' forest land and grassland, national public-benefit arbor forest, arbor forest where precipitation is 400 mm or less, basic grassland and wildlife corridors.
5. Roads. Existing roads used where possible; permanent-use procedures for construction roads that cannot be restored; fire-fighting facilities in the design.
6. Transition. For projects approved or filed before the notice was issued, the grassland pre-examination opinion and no enlargement.
7. Noise. Receptors classified under GB 3096's five functional-zone classes.
8. Power-curve verification. A plan for IEC 61400-12-1 testing with uncertainty assessment.

5. Reading table

Scope limits

This guide reads catalogue records of five standards, three IEC webstore pages and three policy texts. It quotes no clause of NB/T 10103, NB/T 31147 or GB/T 18710, no wake, turbulence, spacing or noise limit, no provincial land rule and no project document. Standards records change; the status values quoted are those shown on the retrieval date.