It is well recognized that the wind power plays a crucial role in achieving sustainable development. However, this emerging industry is facing a number of challenges that can be dealt with by improving flexibility and strengthening the environmental adaptability. Therefore, it is imperative to explore the dynamics of environmental turbulence and flexibility within the wind power industry chain. This study identified critical factors related to the environmental turbulence and flexibility based on an extensive literature review. The measurement models were then developed using the comprehensive evaluation method. Subsequently, based on the calculation method of Euclidean distances, a matching model between environmental turbulence and flexibility was established. The proposed method was applied to the Chinese context. Results revealed that the wind power industry was not flexible enough to deal with the high level of environmental turbulence. Government and enterprises should pay more attention to the resources flexibility, capabilities flexibility and culture flexibility. Moreover, a long-term matching mechanism shall be established with an aim to maintain a healthy level wind power industry chain in terms of the overall flexibility. This study provides an effective tool to measure the matching degree between environmental turbulence and flexibility within the wind power industry chain. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.