Vestas Leads 2018 Ranking of Wind Turbine Manufacturers

London, UK - Developers commissioned a little over 45 GW of onshore wind turbines globally in 2018 compared with 47 GW a year earlier. Just four manufacturers accounted for more than half, or 57 percent, of the machines deployed: Denmark’s Vestas, China’s Goldwind, GE Renewable Energy of the U.S. and Spain’s Siemens Gamesa.

The latest data from BloombergNEF (BNEF) show that Vestas extended its lead in the industry, with 10.1 GW of its onshore turbines commissioned in 2018 – a global market share of 22 percent compared with 16 percent in 2017. The statistics draw on BNEF's global database of wind projects and extensive information from the industry.

China’s Goldwind rose from third to second place, lifted by a strong performance in China, where it captured a third of the 19.3 GW market. The company’s global footprint, however, remains limited: only 5 percent of Goldwind’s 6.7 GW were commissioned outside China. GE came third with 5 GW - six out of every ten GE turbines were commissioned in the U.S. Both GE and Vestas commissioned just over 3 GW in the U.S., with Vestas leading by 44 MW in the neck-to-neck race for U.S. market leadership.

Siemens Gamesa, formed in 2016 from a merger of the wind business of German engineering giant Siemens and the Spanish turbine maker Gamesa, dropped from second to fourth place, with 4.1 GW commissioned in 2018. This is 40 percent less than in 2017, although the tally does not include a number of very large wind farms that are only partially built and will not come online until 2019.

Source: IWR Online, 21 Feb 2019