Vestas extends lead as big four dominate wind turbine manufacturing in 2018

Danish wind turbine manufacturing giant Vestas Wind Systems led onshore wind turbine deployment in 2018 with 10.1GW of capacity and a market share of 22%, leading a group of four manufacturers which together account for 57% of all wind turbines commissioned in 2018.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) published new data Thursday revealing that global commissioning of onshore wind turbines declined by 3% in 2018, down to 45GW from 47GW a year earlier, due partly to a slowdown in both India and Germany. Conversely, BNEF expects growth to bounce back in 2019 with a 32% jump to see a total of 60GW commissioned by year’s end.

The focus of BNEF’s new figures, however, was the increasingly centralised role being played by the top four wind turbine manufacturers – Denmark’s Vestas, China’s Goldwind, the United States’ GE Renewable Energry, and Spain’s Siemens Gamesa.

Specifically, the new numbers show that these four manufacturers accounted for 57% of all wind turbines deployed in 2018, up from 53% in 2017.

This centralisation is also a trend other analysts expect will continue to shape the next decade of wind turbine deployment. A report published earlier this month by Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables claims that the top five wind turbine original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) will account for 73% of the market in 2027, up from 54% in 2016.

Vestas led the big-four manufacturers with 22% of the global market share and 10.1 GW deployed, remaining number one for the third year in a row. China’s Goldwind moved into second place, from third a year ago, with 6.7 GW deployed thanks to strong performance in China but limited activity anywhere else.

GE Renewable Energy moved into third spot with 5 GW deployed during the year – with six out of every ten GE wind turbines commissioned in the United States. Siemens Gamesa tumbled from second spot to fourth in 2018, commissioning only 4.1 GW in 2018, 40% less than in 2017.

This number is somewhat misleading, however, when you take into account both the company’s offshore wind energy presence and a number of large wind turbines that are currently under construction and which are expected to come online in 2019.

 

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.”

Looking at 2018’s figures from a regional perspective, 11.7 GW was deployed in the Americas, 8.5 GW in Europe, and 1 GW in Africa and the Middle East. However, it was Asia which led the way with 24.2 GW deployed in 2018. BNEF’s figures were much in line with those published already by the Global Wind Energy Council, which tracked 11.9 GW across the Americasand 962 MW installed in the Middle East and Africa.

All in all, Bloomberg tracked new wind farms starting operation in 2018 across 53 separate countries.

“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 4.3GW 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 60GW 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.”