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Denmark's Vestas remained the globe's top wind turbine supplier
for a fifth year running in 2020, installing 16.186 GW of capacity,
according to preliminary figures released by the Global
Wind Energy Council (GWEC) 23 March.
Across both the onshore and offshore sectors, the Danish company
installed turbines in 32 markets in 2020, with the US, Australia,
Brazil, the Netherlands, France, Poland, Russia, and Norway key
markets for the company last year, according to the trade
group.
However, the strength of the US onshore market also boosted the
fortunes of the closest challenger to Vestas in 2020. GE Renewable
Energy jumped two places in the table from fourth in 2019 on the
back of home turf primacy to reach 14.135 GW of installations. The
subsidiary of the Boston-based conglomerate also had a good year in
Spain in 2020, GWEC said without providing any figures.
Despite disruptions to local supply chains and project execution
in the US as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the American
manufacturer's domestic market installations topped 10 GW in 2020,
which GWEC said made it the number one supplier in the US for a
second consecutive year.
Chinese home turf dominance
The next couple of spots in the GWEC rankings were occupied by
Chinese companies dominating their own backyard, the biggest market
in the world. Goldwind held onto the third spot globally in 2020,
posting a record year in China with more than 12 GW of
installations, while also breaching the 1 GW milestone for the
first time overseas, for a combined total of 13.606 GW.
Goldwind still held the top spot in China in 2020, but ceded
market share due to strong domestic competition, GWEC said.
Envision ranked fourth globally in 2020 at 10.717 GW of
installations, inching once place higher from 2019. The Chinese
company took advantage of strong market growth at home, where it
installed over 10 GW of capacity in 2020, a record for the company,
according to the trade association.
"Chinese and American turbine manufacturers had a record of new
installations that saw most of them moving up in global turbine
[original equipment manufacturer (OEM)] market rankings," said Feng
Zhao, GWEC head of strategy and market intelligence. "This makes
sense as it reflects the situation that the world's two largest
markets China and United States had the lion's share in global wind
installation in 2020."
On 18 March, GWEC released data showing 52 GW of
wind power capacity came online in China in 2020, double the level
of installations in 2019 and the largest figure in history for a
single year in one nation.
This brought total installed capacity in the Asia Pacific region
to nearly 347 GW -- with over 288 GW of that in China and India
second in the regional rankings at more than 38 GW.
The growth in Chinese and US installations was due to developers
rushing to install projects before subsidies expired, said Indra
Mukhurjee, IHS Markit senior analyst, adding that a strong surge in
partial repowering activity in the US also bolstered turbine
deliveries for major players on GE's home turf. Historically, GE
and Vestas have vied for top spot in the US, Mukhurjee said.
OEMs in mainland China expanded their supply chains to support
the anticipated development rush, but even so, the supply chains of
major local OEMs such as Goldwind, Envision, and Mingyang were
stretched to the limit, said Mukhurjee. As a result, "wind supply
chain consolidation was temporarily interrupted in 2020 as
developers turned to less favored smaller tier 2 OEMs with adequate
bandwidth to deliver turbine orders as soon as possible," he
added.
Siemens Gamesa drops three spots
Meantime, Siemens Gamesa dropped three spots in the global
rankings, with GWEC citing "a relatively slow year" for the
European offshore wind sector for a 1.2 GW decrease in the Spanish
company's installations to 8.7 GW. Siemens Gamesa retained top spot
in the offshore wind market, the trade group said, and nearly
matched top dog Vestas for the number of markets it was active in
with 31.
Siemens Gamesa continued to execute its pipeline of older
generation 7-8 MW offshore turbines while also sitting on a
significant order pile for its newer 11-15 MW turbines, Mukhurjee
said, adding that the offshore wind arena will play an increasingly
significant role in the vendors installations in 2021 and
beyond.
In 2019, the rest of the top 15 comprised: Mingyang, Nordex
Acciona, Enercon, Windey, Dongfang, Sewind, CSIC Haizhuang,
Senvion, United Power, and MHI Vestas.
While not cracking the top five in 2019 or 2020, Mukhurjee said
Nordex Acciona delivered strong growth in installations two years
in a row as a result of regional diversification.
A full set of results will be published in GWEC's Global
Wind Market Development-Supply Side Data 2020 report in late
April 2021, it said.
Posted 24 March 2021 by Keiron Greenhalgh, Editor, Energy and Natural Resources Group, IHS Markit
