Vestas Breaks Record, Installs Over 10GW Wind Turbines in 2019: WoodMac

Danish wind turbine maker Vestas has now become the first wind turbine manufacturer to install over 10 GW of wind capacity in a single year in 2019, as said by the global energy research & consultancy firm.

The Denmark-headquartered OEM’s grid-connected capacity of 11.3 GW in 2019 is an increase of 1.5 GW on 2018, with installations completed in more than 35 markets, as per the new analysis done by Wood Mackenzie, or popularly known as WoodMac.

The report further added that its installations in the Americas region contributed higher than 50 percent of capacity for the first time, driven by the US, Mexico and Argentina.

However, the second position was grabbed by SGRE, dominating the 1.9 GW UK offshore market and achieving more than 1 GW of onshore installations in the US and Spain, according to Wood Mackenzie’s research.

Moreover, GE grew its global dominance by connecting projects in 24 markets, with first-ever turbine installations in Greece, Oman, Jordan, Kazakhstan and Chile reaching 8.7 GW. This is a 60 percent increase in 2018.

However, the report further revealed that 2019 was a year of market consolidation.

Commenting on the development, Shashi Barla, Principal Analyst at Wood Mackenzie, said that “the top five turbine OEMs – Vestas, SGRE, GE, Goldwind and Envision – increased their combined market share by 10 percent from two years ago, capturing 68 percent of global capacity.”

Sitting just outside the top 5, MingYang grew its market share by nearly 3 percentage points. The company doubled installations in China to 4.4 GW, including record offshore activity of over 500 MW driven by projects in Guangdong, the report added.

Barla further added that “China’s big 3 OEMs – Goldwind, Envision and MingYang – each recorded their highest ever installs in 2019. This challenged the West’s big three – Vestas, GE and SGRE – who also logged record installations last year.”

“Supply constraints for China’s big three enabled tier-II Chinese OEMs, such as Windey and CRRC, to make a surprise appearance in the global top 10 and top 15 rankings, respectively, for the first time,” he commented.

Barla also commented that despite 8 Chinese OEMs ranking among the top 15 globally, only 0.6 GW of wind turbine capacity was exported. This illustrates China’s heavy dependence on the domestic market.”

“Smaller regional players, including Senvion, Suzlon, INOX, XEMC and WEG, lost market share due to challenging market conditions. This resulted in financial difficulties that will jeopardise their future participation in the wind sector,” said Shashi Barla.

Despite a healthy outlook for the wind turbine supply chain over the next decade, the coronavirus presents near-term hurdles for OEMs.

Meanwhile, on the coronavirus impact on some countries, Barla opined that “wind turbine OEMs with exposure to global wind turbine supply chain hubs including China, India and Spain will see a negative market share impact in 2020. This is primarily due to coronavirus lockdown measures that have obstructed manufacturing facilities in these countries.”

However, the research agency in its another report projected that, despite demand fluctuations, the global wind turbine supply chain is racing towards a USD 600 billion cumulative opportunities by the end of 2028.