Wang Wenqi was mocked as a fantasist when he set out plans to create China's wind power capital in Dabancheng, a small and nondescript town in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

That was the 1980s. Almost 30 years on, the town, planted between the regional capital, Urumqi, and the Turpan Basin, is a vast expanse of "white forests."

More than 300 howling wind turbines stretch for some 80 kilometers, feeding Urumqi with constant clean electricity.

Wang, 80, recalls the early 1980s, when, as director of the Xinjiang Irrigation Works and Hydropower Research Institute, he had to remain steadfast in the face of overwhelming doubt.

Some of Wang' s colleagues said he was out of his mind, regarding what he was doing was mission impossible, and "only creatures on the moon could think of."

Wang was unfazed and in November 1986, he was heading the newly established Xinjiang Wind Energy Institute with two turbines transported from Denmark to a pilot field near Chaiwobao Lake in Dabancheng.

In October 1989, Wang bought another 13 wind turbines from Denmark with a donation of US$3.2 million  from the Danish government, and set out to make Dabancheng a landmark in China' s wind power industry.

"This project is the seed in a sense," says Yu Wuming, Wang's successor. "In China, almost everyone developing wind power has visited Dabancheng, and almost every place developing wind power has been supervised by Xinjiang engineers."

Dabancheng Wind Farm now has a combined generating capacity of 500MW. Though not the largest in installed capacity, it is home to most of China's complete range of turbines, from the earliest and smallest 20kW to the latest 3MW turbines, produced by enterprises at home and abroad.