In 2018, a total of 20,641 wind turbines were installed across the globe with a total capacity of 50,617 MW. These wind turbines were supplied by 37 manufacturers, says a recent report by the Global Wind Energy Council.

According to the report, eight out of the top 15 wind turbine manufacturers are based in China. Moreover, one in five wind turbines were installed by Vestas, the world’s largest turbine supplier in 2018, followed by Goldwind and Siemens Gamesa.

Vestas was the world’s largest turbine supplier in 2018 due to its wide geographic diversification strategy and strong performance in the Americas according to the report. Goldwind moved up one position to second place after its domestic market share increased by 5.1% in 2018. Siemens Gamesa fell one position to third place, primarily due to lower installation in the U.K., Germany and India in 2018.

After reverse auctions kicked in for wind power procurement in India, the installation numbers fell but these are expected to spike as auctioned projects near completion towards the end of 2019 and early 2020. The first batch of the auctioned interstate transmission system (ISTS)-connected wind energy projects was commissioned in India in August 2018.

GE Renewable Energy retained fourth place by taking advantage of stronger performance in the U.S. market, where it recaptured the title as the No.1 supplier. Envision replaced Enercon in fifth place, mainly due to its strong growth in China and the sharp drop of installations in Enercon’s domestic German market in 2018.

Chinese suppliers Mingyang, United Power and Sewind moved up to seventh, ninth and tenth positions respectively, which can be largely attributed to stable performances in their home markets. Suzlon dropped out of the top 10 turbine supplier ranking in 2018, primarily a result of reduced installations, by up to one third, in its home market of India.

Senvion fell three positions to 12^th, with new installations in Germany in 2018 halving compared to the previous year. Chinese suppliers CSIC Haizhuang and XEMC remained in the top 15, however, both lost market share in 2018.

Ben Backwell, CEO of GWEC, said, “The fact that tier one suppliers gained greater market share in a year when the new installation declined by 3% reinforces that leading global suppliers’ hard work, focusing on product innovation and value-added solutions, has finally paid off. While there are 8 Chinese manufacturers included in the top 15, the picture changes dramatically when sales in the domestic Chinese market are excluded. Aside from Goldwind, none of the Chinese suppliers installed sufficient new wind capacity in the overseas market for any to be included in the top 10 rankings in 2018.”

Feng Zhao, Strategy Director of GWEC, said, “In 2018 we saw further consolidation taking place on the supply side. The severe competition resulting from the transition from Feed-in-Tariff to auctions pushed another seven small turbine OEMs out of the market last year. This trend is likely to continue in China – although there are 19 local turbine OEMs active in this country, the upcoming auction and the central government’s goal to reach grid parity in the early 2020s will certainly force many small and medium-sized Chinese turbine vendors to give up their wind turbine production activities”.

Solar installations in 2019 are expected to be double compared to the wind as costs for solar have declined rapidly.