Wind Turbine Suppliers see record year for deliveries despite supply chain and market pressures

Medium-speed wind turbines continue to gain popularity, the data shows, with its global market share increasing to 9.7 per cent in 2021, a 3.6 per cent rise relative to 2020. Mingyang and Vestas remain the key drivers in this turbine drive train solution with Goldwind, the world’s number one supplier of direct drive wind turbines, and Sewind, China’s leading offshore wind turbine supplier, both installed their commercial medium-speed turbines in 2021 for the very first time.

The double-fed induction generator (DFIG) remains the mainstream solution in 2021 with 50% of the market share, followed by direct drive permanent magnet generator (DD PMG), squirrel cage induction generator (SCIG,) and medium-speed PMG.

Feng Zhao, Head of Strategy and Market Intelligence of GWEC, said: “More than 100 GW wind power capacity was mechanically installed in 2021, making it the best year in global wind history and demonstrating the incredible resilience of the wind industry and global supply chain. The number of turbine suppliers dropped from 35 in 2020 to 30 in 2021, showing further market consolidation on the supply side, but the top six wind turbine OEMs lost 3% market share in 2021 as Tier 2 and 3 Chinese turbine OEMs gained more market share during the installation rush in China.

“Out of the global top 15 wind turbine suppliers in 2021, ten come from China, but only two Chinese make the top 5, a repeat of last year’s Top 15.

“Thanks for an astounding level of offshore wind growth at home driven by the feed-in tariff cut-off, however, Chinese suppliers dominated the offshore wind rankings last year with Siemens Gamesa and Vestas dropping out of the top 3 for the very first time. 2021 also saw the volume of exported Chinese turbines nearly tripled compared with 2020, but the Chinese OEMs’ market share outside China remains small,” he added.

The full report is available at GWEC’s Market Intelligence website: https://gwec.net/market-intelligence/