Vestas And GE Tie For First Place Among 2012 Turbine Manufacturers

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2012 was a good year for renewable energy installations, and a new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance shows that it was a very good year for the wind energy sector, installing a record 48.4 GW of new capacity.

This report comes just days after the report from Pew Charitable Trusts was released, which reported that a total of 88 GW of additional renewable generating capacity was installed during 2012.

The wind energy sector’s contribution to the overall renewable energy total is measured the same in both reports, unsurprising considering that Bloomberg New Energy Finances are Pew’s clean energy research partner. Vestas V164 Nears Completion and Increases to 8MW

Vestas has regularly been a world leader in the wind energy sector, but General Electric (GE) were beneficiaries of the surge of development sparked by the expiring US tax credit. In the end, more than 96% of the wind turbines that GE commissioned during 2012 were installed in the US market.

GE wasn’t the only company to benefit from the expiring tax credit in the US, with European Manufacturers such as Siemens and Gamesa similarly making the US their single-largest 2012 market. Even Vestas, sitting pretty on top with GE, had 40% of its 2012 capacity additions in the US.

“2012 was a great year for Western manufacturers in terms of adding new capacity, particularly those with large exposure to the US market,” said Justin Wu, head of wind analysis at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. “Unfortunately, this boom was largely based on beating the deadline on an expiring subsidy and not on sustainable growth. As such, 2013 will look very different.”

Sadly, 2012 was not a great year for the Chinese wind market, which saw an 18% drop in annual capacity added for the year. As a result, the four largest Chinese turbine manufacturers were pushed to the bottom of the Top 10 rankings, due to a national drop in capacity and the fact that Chinese countries do 99% of their business within their home country.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance believe that 2013 will see a stabilising of the market, with the US market set to decline in the wake of the tax credit expiration.

The top 10 suppliers contributed 33.5 GW of 2012’s total global commissioned capacity, equalling 70%. Those 10 include:

  1. GE (US) – 11.8%
  2. Vestas (Denmark) – 11.8%
  3. Siemens (Denmark) – 11.0%
  4. Enercon (Germany) – 7.2%
  5. Suzlon/REpower (India) – 6.6%
  6. Gamesa (Spain) – 6.4%
  7. Goldwind (China) – 6.0%
  8. Guodian United Power (China) – 3.5%
  9. Sinovel (China) – 2.7%
  10. Sewind (China) – 2.3%

 


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Joshua S Hill

I'm a Christian, a nerd, a geek, and I believe that we're pretty quickly directing planet-Earth into hell in a handbasket! I also write for Fantasy Book Review (.co.uk), and can be found writing articles for a variety of other sites. Check me out at about.me for more.

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