Energize Weekly, February 27, 2019
Onshore wind projects commissioned in 2018 ticked down to 45 gigawatts (GW) from 47 GW a year earlier—with four manufacturers dominating the market, according to a Bloomberg New Energy Finance report.
The four—Denmark’s Vestas, China’s Goldwind, American GE Renewable Energy and Spain’s Siemens Gamesa—accounted for 57 percent of the turbines deployed in 2018.
The report is based on statistics drawn from Bloomberg’s global database of wind projects and “extensive information” from the industry, the market consultant said.
Vestas extended its industry lead, with 10.1 GW of onshore turbines commissioned in 2018, representing a 22 percent market share up from 16 percent in 2017.
Goldwind rose one place in the rankings to second based on a strong performance in China where it filled one-third of the 19.3 GW Chinese market’s orders.
Outside of China, however, Goldwind’s projects represented only 5 percent of the company’s 6.75 GW of sales.
Similarly, GE Renewable, which ranked third, also depends heavily on its domestic market with six out 10 of its 5 GW in turbines sold in the U.S.
Both GE Renewable and Vestas sold just more than 3 GW of turbines in the U.S. In 2017, GE claimed the top spot in U.S. sales, in 2018 Vestas edged past GE by 44 megawatts.
Siemens Gamesa, which was formed in 2016 from a merger of the wind business of German giant Siemens and the Spanish turbine maker Gamesa, saw a 40 percent decline in sales compared to 2017 and slipped from second to fourth place with 4.1 GW of commissioned turbines.
The sales number, however, does not include “a number of very large wind farms that are only partially built and will not come online until 2019,” Bloomberg said.
Vestas and Nordex commissioned more capacity in the Americas than in Europe. Siemens Gamesa had the most diversified portfolio, with a near-equal split across Europe, the Americas and Asia.
Total onshore wind installations in 2018 were 11.7 GW in the Americas, 8.5 GW in Europe and 1 GW in Africa and the Middle East. Asia had 24.2 GW of new wind capacity.
Other top 10 turbine makers were Envision with 3.28 GW; Enercon with 2.53 GW; Ming Yang with 2.44 GW; Nordex with 2.43 GW; Guodian UP with 1.29 GW; and Windey with 0.94 GW.
Bloomberg recorded new wind farms starting full commercial operation in 53 countries.
“Last year was a bit of a mixed picture in terms of global onshore wind installations, with only 45.4 GW commissioned,” David Hostert, head of wind research at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said in a statement. “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,” Hostert said. “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.”
