Vestas Retains Position As World’s Leading Onshore Wind Supplier

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Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas Wind Systems A/S was once again the world’s leading onshore wind turbine supplier in 2018 and led a group of four manufacturers which accounted for 57% of all wind turbines commissioned in 2018.

Energy research leader Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) published its latest authoritative Global Wind Turbine Market Shares report detailing the global commissioning of onshore wind turbines around the world, which declined by 3% in 2018 to 45 gigawatts (GW), down from 47 GW in 2017.

BNEF’s figures focus on the corporate makeup of onshore wind turbines deployed, and again hailed Denmark’s Vestas Wind Systems A/S as leading the pack with 10.1 GW commissioned in 2018, accounting for 22% of the market share, up from its 2017 share of 16%. This is the third year in a row Vestas has held this spot after reclaiming it from Goldwind in 2016 and holding it in 2017.

“We are of course very pleased to see that we are very competitive in the global wind market,” said Morten Dyrholm, Group Senior Vice President, Global Marketing & Communications, commenting on the news via email. “Together with our 2018 results, it proves that our strategy is working and that we continue to lead the industry on key parameters such as sales, profitability, and technology.”

For more on Vestas’ 2018 results, click here.

Vestas led a pack of four wind turbine original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) which together accounted for 57% of all onshore wind turbines deployed in 2018: joining Vestas was China’s Goldwind, the United States’ GE Renewable Energy, and Spain’s Siemens Gamesa. Bloomberg’s figures further confirm a point made earlier this month by research peer Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables, which predicted that by 2027 the top five wind turbine OEMs would account for 73% of the market, up from a 54% market share in 2016. According to BNEF’s Tom Harries, however, who spoke to me via email, Bloomberg already has the top five OEMs accounting for 64% of the market share, and that figure jumps up to 89% if you exclude the relatively insular Chinese market. The difference between Bloomberg and Wood Mackenzie, then, is probably the inclusion of the offshore wind sector into the latter’s numbers.

Sitting behind Vestas was China’s Goldwind, which stepped into second spot in 2018 with 6.7 GW worth of onshore wind turbines deployed thanks almost entirely to its strong performance in China where it accounted for a third of the country’s 19.3 GW market. The company’s reach outside of its home market was minimal, at best, with only 5% of its turbines commissioned outside China. GE Renewable Energy similarly rose up the rankings to sit at third with 5 GW deployed in 2018, with six out of every ten GE wind turbines commissioned in the United States.

The room to increase positions last year was created by Spanish Siemens Gamesa — the resulting company from the merger between German engineering giant Siemens and the Spanish turbine maker Gamesa in 2016 — which fell from second to fourth place with only 4.1 GW of onshore wind commissioned in 2018, 40% less than it boasted in 2017. This is, at least in part, due to a number of large wind farms the company is supplying which are currently under construction and are expected to come online in 2019.

Top 10 global onshore wind turbine makers, 2018

Source: BloombergNEF. Notes: Only includes onshore wind capacity. Total fully commissioned onshore wind capacity in 2018 was 45.4GW. SGRE is Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy.

“Chinese manufacturers rely almost solely on their home market,” said Tom Harries, senior wind analyst at BNEF and lead author of the BNEF report Global Wind Turbine Market Shares. “Of the European onshore wind turbine makers to make the top 10, Vestas and Nordex actually commissioned more capacity in the Americas than in Europe. Most of Enercon’s turbines are in Europe. Siemens Gamesa is the most diversified, with a near equal split across Europe, the Americas and Asia.”

“In offshore wind, it’s been a record year for China, and we will see more growth,” Harries continued. “Some 1.7 GW of the global 4.3 GW was commissioned there. In Europe it was a tight race between Siemens Gamesa and MHI Vestas. GE has some projects coming up in France, and we also expect to see orders for their new 12 MW platform.”

Bloomberg’s new report also showed how the onshore wind sector played out in terms of regional deployment, with Asia leading the way with 24.2 GW of all turbines deployed. The Americas boasted 11.7 GW, Europe 8.5 GW, and 1 GW in the Africa and Middle East region. These figures align almost seamlessly with figures published by the Global Wind Energy Council in recent days, which tracked 11.9 GW across the Americas and 962 MW installed in the Middle East and Africa.

“Last year was a bit of a mixed picture in terms of global onshore wind installations, with only 45.4 GW commissioned,” explained David Hostert, head of wind research at BNEF. “Still, add to that 4.3 GW offshore wind and 2018 ended slightly lower than 2017. Now it is time for the manufacturers to buckle up for two stormy years ahead: we predict demand for around 60 GW of onshore capacity in both 2019 and 2020 with increases in all regions. However, a lot of this impressive-sounding volume rides on extremely competitive pricing, add-on products and services, and new financing models. This will be tough to deliver for the Big Four, let alone the smaller turbine makers.”


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Joshua S Hill

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