Global commissioning of onshore wind turbines fell by 12 percent in 2017, partly due to a slowdown in China. However, the sector is expected to bounce back to 55 GW in 2018. Just under 47 GW of onshore wind turbines were installed globally during the year, with four manufacturers – Vestas, Siemens Gamesa, Goldwind and General Electric – accounting for 53 percent of the turbines deployed. The statistics draw on BNEF's global database of utility-scale wind projects and extensive information from the industry.
Siemens Gamesa was formed in 2016 from a merger of the wind business of German engineering giant Siemens and the Spanish turbine maker Gamesa. The company came second in onshore turbines, with 6.8 GW commissioned, raising its market share from the 11 percent that its two predecessor companies held in 2016, to 15 percent last year. China’s Goldwind saw 5.4 GW commissioned and America’s GE 4.9 GW, equivalent to market shares of 11 percent and 10 percent respectively.
“In 2017, quite a bit of distance opened up between GE in fourth place and the fifth-placed manufacturer, Germany’s Enercon, with 3.1 GW” said Tom Harries, senior wind analyst at BNEF and lead author of the report. “Six other turbine makers, from Europe and China, had between 1 GW and 3 GW commissioned last year. In offshore wind, it was a very different story, with Siemens Gamesa continuing to be by far the biggest supplier globally, with 2.7 GW commissioned, and other players such as Sewind of China, MHI Vestas and Senvion of Germany back at around half a gigawatt each”.
More than 90 percent of Goldwind’s commissioned turbines were for projects in China in 2017, while almost all of Enercon’s went online in Europe. General Electric was much stronger in the Americas than elsewhere.
Vestas and Siemens Gamesa saw significant commissioning of their onshore turbines in all three regions – Europe, Middle East and Africa, the Americas and Asia-Oceania.
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