Vestas Remains the No. 1 Wind Energy Manufacturer in 2019

London, UK / New York, USA - Developers commissioned almost 61 GW of wind turbines globally in 2019, compared with 50 GW in the previous year. Most of these were on land (88 percent) but the share of turbines installed offshore is growing, up four percentage points to 12 percent.

Just four manufacturers accounted for more than half, or 55 percent, of the machines deployed: Denmark’s Vestas, Spain’s Siemens Gamesa, China’s Goldwind, and General Electric of the U.S.

The latest data from BloombergNEF (BNEF) show that Vestas kept its position as the world’s leading turbine maker. A busy year offshore propelled Siemens Gamesa to second place, up from fourth. The figures draw on BNEF's global database of wind projects and extensive information from the industry.

Of the top 10 onshore turbine makers, Vestas suffered the biggest slippage in its market share, down four percentage points to 18 percent, as its competitors gained ground. The top five remains unchanged, but in the chasing group, a strong year for Chinese installations pushed up Ming Yang, Windey and Dongfang Electric to sixth, seventh and ninth, respectively.

Nearly half of all new megawatts installed in the U.S. were from GE, enabling it to seize the top spot in its home market from Vestas. GE outperformed its rival by commissioning 40 percent more than it had in 2018, while Vestas’ installation total was stable. Siemens Gamesa enjoyed the biggest bounce of any of the players in the U.S., tripling its 2018 numbers and taking over the third place from Nordex.

Weaker activity in specific markets hit some firms. Enercon and Senvion saw commissioned capacity plummet as Germany’s onshore wind market collapsed due to a shortage of available sites, litigation and drawn-out lead times for projects. Suzlon suffered a similar fate in India, where project execution challenges resulted in installations falling short of expectations.

“2020 is set to be another strong year for installations in China and the U.S., as developers rush to build before subsidies lapse, but uncertainty post-2020 could expose some bigger players unless they diversify to new growth markets,” said Oliver Metcalfe, wind analyst at BNEF.

Source: IWR Online, 19 Feb 2020