GE Renewable, Goldwind Relegate Vestas To Third Place in Wind Rankings

A new ranking of Wind turbine manufacturers for 2020 from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) has turned up a shake up at the top.

GE Renewable Energy and Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co Ltd have moved up to take the first two spots, pushing the erstwhile Danish leader Vestas Wind Systems A/S to  third place. Vestas had been on top for the past 4 years.

For Vestas,  the drop has been even steeper in the offshore wind market  where Siemens Gamesa renewable Energy retains its top ranking, with Vestas dropping to seventh place, behind Chinese manufacturers Shanghai Electric, Mingyang, Envision, Goldwind and CSSC.  However, with a new lineup, Vestas hopes to make a strong recovery in this market.

Siemens had total offshore installations of 1.91 GW of turbines in 2020, and will likely maintain its lead, going by its current order book, according to the BNEF report.

Overall leader General Electric Co installed 13.53 GW in total last year, all of it onshore wind. Goldwind is catching up fast with 13.06 GW of turbines in total, of which 12.75 GW were onshore.

Vestas delivered 12.40 GW of total installations, with onshore accounting for 12.16 GW.

The rise of Chinese manufacturers in Wind Energy was a foregone conclusion, and their rise in offshore in particular signals a big boom in offshore, as a large domestic market will allow these firm to grow faster and invest more in catching up with the European champions. With a 1200 GW target for the decade upto 2030, it is widely expected that China will actually target higher numbers than these, if progress of domestic manufacturing firms in Wind Energy keeps pace. The latest rankings indicate that is happening.

GE, Goldwind, Vestas and Envision accounted for 51% of the total turbine capacity deployed in the record-setting 2020.

The top 10 turbine supplier ranking for 2020

Source: BNEF