Market researcher Wood Mackenzie has released the list of top wind turbine manufacturers for the year 2019. According to the research firm, the world built around 65 GW of new wind farms last year. Among the installers, the top three spots for largest wind turbine suppliers of 2019 have been taken by Vestas, Siemens Gamesa and General Electric. The growing size of China’s wind market has helped three Chinese suppliers to claim the next three spots – Goldwind, Envision and Mingyang. Rounding out the top 10 list of leading wind turbine suppliers in 2019 are Nordex (Germany), Windey (China), Enercon (Germany) and Sewind (China). Smaller regional players, including Senvion, Suzlon, Inox, XEMC and WEG, lost market share due to challenging market conditions.
According to the report, Denmark-based Vestas Wind Systems A/S commissioned 11.3 GW of wind power capacity in 2019 across 35 markets, becoming the first turbine manufacturer to install more than 10 GW in a single year. The 2019 number represents an increase of 1.5 GW over Vestas’ installed capacity in 2018. Vestas’ installations in the Americas region contributed higher than 50 per cent of capacity for the first time, driven by the US, Mexico and Argentina.
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) has moved to the second spot in 2019, dominating the 1.9 GW UK offshore market and achieving more than 1 GW of onshore installations in the US and Spain, according to Wood Mackenzie’s research.
GE grew its global dominance by connecting projects in 24 markets, with first-ever turbine installations in Greece, Oman, Jordan, Kazakhstan and Chile. GE contributed to 8.7 GW of wind installations in 2019, a 60 per cent increase over 2018.
Meanwhile, unlike the solar industry, China’s wind turbine manufacturers have largely failed to break out of their home market, with just 600 MW of Chinese turbines exported in 2019. Goldwind, China’s most visible wind company on the global stage, is currently delivering turbines through the Port of Vancouver to a 200-MW project in the Canadian prairies, a potentially significant breakthrough for the company in the North American market.
Together, the top five turbine OEMs – Vestas, SGRE, GE, Goldwind and Envision – increased their combined market share by 10 per cent from two years ago, capturing 68 per cent of global capacity. Sitting just outside the top five, MingYang grew its market share by nearly 3 percentage points. The company doubled installations in China to 4.4 GW, including record offshore activity of over 500 MW driven by projects in Guangdong. These trends clearly point towards a greater consolidation in the global wind OEM space.
