Global Onshore Wind Turbine Commissioning Declined in 2018

by | Feb 15, 2019

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(Photo: Vestas V112 wind turbine installation in Macarthur, Australia. Credit: Vestas Wind Systems)

Global commissioning of onshore wind turbines declined 3% last year, but growth is expected to bounce back in 2019, according to new data from BloombergNEF (BNEF).

The report, called Global Wind Turbine Market Shares, analyzed statistics from BNEF’s global database of wind projects and information from the industry. It found that developers commissioned a little over 45 gigawatts of onshore wind turbines globally in 2018 compared with 47 gigawatts in 2017.

This dip was partly due to a slowdown in India and Germany, BNEF says. However, the report authors predict that demand for onshore capacity will jump to around 60 GW of in 2019 and 2020 with increases in all regions.

“Last year was a bit of a mixed picture in terms of global onshore wind installations, with only 45.4 GW commissioned. Still, add to that 4.3 GW offshore wind and 2018 ended slightly lower than 2017,” said David Hostert, head of wind research at BNEF.

BNEF identified the top 10 global onshore wind turbine makers in 2018 as: Vestas, Goldwind, GE, SGRE, Envision, Enercon, Ming Yang, Nordex, Guodian UP, and Windey. Of those, four manufacturers accounted for 57%, of the machines deployed: Denmark’s Vestas, China’s Goldwind, GE Renewable Energy of the US, and Spain’s Siemens Gamesa, the report said.

Vestas widened its industry lead with nearly 10.1 GW of its onshore turbines commissioned last year, representing a global market share of 22% compared with 16% in 2017:

Figure: Top 10 global onshore wind turbine makers, 2018. Note: Only includes onshore wind capacity. Total fully commissioned onshore wind capacity in 2018 was 45.4 GW. SGRE is Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy. Source: BloombergNEF

Hostert noted that a lot of the impressive-sounding volume for this year and the next 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,” he said. “Now it is time for the manufacturers to buckle up for two stormy years ahead.”

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