In a new Navigant Research report examining the strategy and execution of 12 original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) active in the wind turbine market, Vestas, GE Energy, Siemens and Gamesa have come out on top.
The firm says its report, entitled “Navigant Research Leaderboard Report: Global Wind Turbine Vendors,” provides an objective assessment of the companies’ relative strengths and weaknesses in the global wind power industry.
According to the report, behind those four “top-tier vendors” are Enercon, Senvion, Nordex, Goldwind, Suzlon and Envision as “strong contenders,” which, though “proven, successful and well respected,” may have smaller global business footprints and narrower product offerings, says Navigant.
Then, according to the firm, ranked behind these companies are a few “large and very capable” Chinese wind turbine vendors that rely predominantly on their domestic market but show “mixed or limited success” in other international markets – United Power and Ming Yang.
The firm says the vendors in its report are rated on 12 criteria: vision, go-to-market strategy, partners, production strategy, technology, geographic reach, sales and marketing, global market share, 2015 capacity, product quality and reliability, product portfolio, cumulative installations, and staying power.
Jesse Broehl, senior research analyst with Navigant Research, says though OEMs are usually ranked largely by total installed capacity per year, this ranking gives a “more interesting story” because it looks at a “mix of qualitative factors at play.”
Broehl explains, “Today’s top-tier vendors are excelling by showing brisk activity throughout many global markets and have an exceptional command of manufacturing, supply chain and business relationships.”
In this increasingly competitive space, Navigant notes, today’s wind turbine OEMs must constantly work to meet and exceed expectations in a range of criteria.
An executive summary of the report is available for free download here.
