Chinese turbine maker Goldwind overtakes Vestas

Goldwind’s growing output reflects the rapid expansion of the Chinese wind market in 2015

Danish firm Vestas has been toppled from its long-standing position as the world’s largest supplier of wind turbines by a Chinese manufacturer.

Preliminary results from an annual report on the global wind turbine sector, produced by busi-ness advisory firm FTI Consulting, found that Chinese company Goldwind produced more wind turbines last year than firms such as Vestas, GE, Siemens and Gamesa.

Goldwind’s growing output reflects the rapid expansion of the Chinese wind market in 2015. More than 30GW of wind turbine capacity was installed there last year, almost half the 63GW global total of new installations.

Wind turbine installations also continued to surge elsewhere in the world, with 20% more tur-bines installed in 2015 than 2014. Around 2.3GW of capacity was installed in Germany, while in the US wind surpassed natural gas as the largest power-generation source for the first time, the report found.

Aris Karcanias, managing director of FTI Consulting, said: “Wind power has become the leading new energy source in Europe

and the US; in particular, onshore wind has become mature and reliable. Continued innovation and cost reductions will make it even more popular.”

The report identifies a trend towards modularisation in wind turbine technology, as well as new turbines with higher outputs, longer blades and taller towers opening up opportunities at sites with low amounts of wind and com-plex terrain. “Rather than developing unique turbine models with different components between each series, size and type, wind turbine OEMs are continuing to invest in a platform approach,” said Karcanias. “This seeks to standardise compo-nents and provide a means of commoditising certain key production items.”