As a renewable energy, wind energy plays a momentous role in improving energy structure and maintaining energy strategic security. Based on the provincial level panel data, this paper not only ex-plores the direct effect of price-oriented policy (POP) and quantity-oriented policy (QOP) on newly installed wind power capacity (NI), but also investigates the indirect impact paths and mechanisms through learning-by-researching (LBS) and learning-by-doing (LBD). Main results are as follows: (1) From the national perspective, it is observed that the two policies can directly promote the expansion of wind power, and POP is better than QOP. (2) From the perspective of regional heterogeneity, POP plays a significant direct role in promoting the wind power growth in the eastern, central and western regions, and QOP has achieved a long-term success in the eastern region, but fails in the central and western regions in the long run. (3) From the perspective of resource endowment heterogeneity, QOP plays a better direct role than POP in areas with rich wind resources, but the opposite is true that in the areas with relatively poor wind resources. Based on the research results, several constructive suggestions are put forward. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.