GWEC Releases Supply Side Data 2018 Report

The Global Wind Energy Council has published the first edition of its annual Global Wind Market Development – Supply Side Data 2018. According to the report, 20,641 wind turbines were installed globally in 2018, with a combined capacity of 50,617 MW. The report finds that over half of the top 15 wind turbine manufacturers are based in China.

Vestas held the title as the world’s largest turbine supplier in 2018, due to its wide geographic diversification strategy and strong performance in the Americas. Goldwind moved up one position to second place after its domestic market share increased by 5.1% in 2018. Siemens Gamesa fell one position to third place, primarily due to lower installation in the UK, Germany and India in 2018.

The report shows that the geared wind turbine systems remain the preferred choice of wind turbine technology. The market share of conventional high speed geared systems and medium speed turbines increased to 69.7% and 3.7% respectively in 2018, while the market share of direct drive wind turbine dropped nearly 2% to 26.6% in 2018, primarily due to the reduction of wind turbines installed by Germany’s Enercon in 2018. The No.1 suppliers in each of the three technology categories (high-speed geared drive, medium speed geared drive and direct drive) in 2018 were Vestas, Mingyang and Goldwind respectively.  

Ben Backwell, CEO of GWEC, said: “The fact that tier one suppliers gained greater market share in a year when the new installation declined by 3% reinforces that leading global suppliers’ hard work, focusing on product innovation and value-added solutions, has finally paid off. While there are 8 Chinese manufacturers included in the top 15, the picture changes dramatically when sales in the domestic Chinese market are excluded. Aside from Goldwind, none of the Chinese suppliers installed sufficient new wind capacity in the overseas market for any to be included in the top 10 ranking in 2018.”

Feng Zhao, Strategy Director of GWEC, said: “In 2018 we saw further consolidation taking place on the supply side. The severe competition resulting from the transition from Feed-in-Tariff to auctions pushed another seven small turbine OEMs out of the market last year. This trend is likely to continue in China – although there are 19 local turbine OEMs active in this country, the upcoming auction and the central government’s goal to reach grid parity in the early 2020s will certainly force many small and medium-sized Chinese turbine vendors to give up their wind turbine production activities”.

GE Renewable Energy retained fourth place by taking advantage of stronger performance in the US market, where it recaptured the title as the No.1 supplier. Envision replaced Enercon in fifth place, mainly due to its strong growth in China and the sharp drop of installations in Enercon’s domestic German market in 2018.

Chinese suppliers Mingyang, United Power and Sewind moved up to seventh, ninth and tenth respectively, which can be largely attributed to stable performances in their home markets. Suzlon dropped out of the top 10 turbine supplier ranking in 2018, primarily a result of reduced installations, by up to one third, in its home market of India.

Senvion fell three positions to 12^th, with new installations in Germany in 2018 halving compared to the previous year. Chinese suppliers CSIC Haizhuang and XEMC remained in the top 15, however both of them lost market share in 2018.

The report is being published as part of GWEC’s new Market Intelligence service and is the update of FTI Consulting’s Global Wind Market Update – Supply Side Analysis that FTI Intelligence granted GWEC the Intellectual Property Rights on 3 April 2019.

The full report is exclusively available for GWEC members and is available in the Market Intelligence Members Area on the GWEC website. The final report includes more than 30 tables and figures charting the evolution of global wind power markets on the supply side.

Top 15 wind turbine suppliers in annual global market in 2018:

1. Vestas
2. Goldwind
3. Siemens Gamesa
4. GE Renewable
5. Envision
6. Enercon
7. Mingyang,
8. Nordex Acciona
9. United Power
10. Sewind
11. Suzlon
12. Senvion
13. Windey
14. CSIC Haizhuang
15. XEMC

Key Insights from the Report

• 20,641 wind turbines installed in 2018, produced by 37 manufacturers.
• 1 in 5 wind turbines were installed by Vestas, the world’s largest turbine supplier, in 2018, followed by Goldwind and Siemens Gamesa.
• Eight out of the top 15 wind turbine manufacturers are based in China.
• Vestas, Mingyang and Goldwind are the number one supplier in each of the three turbine technology categories, high-speed geared drive, medium speed geared drive and direct drive, in 2018.

This report is available for GWEC Members only on the GWEC Market Intelligence Members Area.