More wind turbine original equipment manufacturer (OEM) rankings are in: According to MAKE’s newly released “Global Wind Turbine OEM 2016 Market Share” analysis, Western turbine OEMs accounted for four of the top five positions.
MAKE says Vestas emerged victorious in 2016 when it added 8.7 GW across 36 markets. Runner-up GE took second place by nearly three percentage points fewer – representing the largest differential between the top two spots in the firm’s ranking since 2013.
MAKE’s top 10 global wind turbine OEM rankings, which include both onshore and offshore wind, are as follows:
1. Vestas
2. GE
3. Goldwind
4. Gamesa
5. Siemens
6. Enercon
7. Nordex Group
8. United Power
9. Mingyang
10. Envision
Likewise, FTI Intelligence and Bloomberg New Energy Finance recently named Vestas as the top wind OEM in their respective reports for 2016.
In addition, according to MAKE’s numbers, Vestas led all turbine OEMs in terms of geographic diversity. The top seven western turbine OEMs added capacity in an average of 21 markets in 2016, compared with an average of two markets apiece for Chinese turbine OEMs.
Western turbine OEMs also capitalized on markets with big years of new capacity, including the U.S., India and Germany. Key differentiators for Western turbine OEMs included market diversification and the commercialization of larger-rated turbine models, according to MAKE.
Notably, performance in the offshore sector remained an important differentiator, particularly for Siemens, but it did not have the same overall impact it did in 2015, considering the global market size of additional annual offshore capacity dropped 32% year-over-year, says the report.
However, Siemens accounted for 68% of global offshore capacity, and Sewind’s offshore achievements in China helped bolster the Chinese OEM’s position in the regional rankings.
According to MAKE, a lack of geographic diversity continues to expose Chinese turbine OEMs to fluctuations in the size of annual capacity additions in the Chinese market. As a result of less new capacity installed in China year-over-year, the seven Chinese turbine OEMs in the top 15 global rankings added nearly 500 MW less capacity year-over-year.
This kept six of the seven Chinese turbine OEMs from maintaining the same position or caused them to drop positions in the year-over-year rankings. CSIC Haizhuang was the only Chinese turbine OEM to improve its position year-over-year and incidentally was the only Chinese OEM to record more annual capacity in 2016 than in 2015, the report adds.
MAKE says GE returned to the second position globally after losing the spot to Goldwind last year. It held on to the top spot in the U.S., albeit by a thin margin, and continued to control the Brazilian market. In addition to winning the Americas region, GE posted record years in Germany and India and otherwise capitalized on demand for its 2 MW platform. It also installed the first offshore turbines in the Americas market to complement its onshore focus, the firm says.
Goldwind fell to the third position globally, with 7% less new capacity year-over-year, but it had a tremendous year in China, relative to its compatriots. It outpaced the next-closest OEM in China by more than 4.5 GW, as no other Chinese turbine OEM installed more than 2 GW in 2016, compared with 6.4 GW for Goldwind.
Gamesa, which jumped one position in 2016, beat out its new associate, Siemens, for the fourth position in the global rankings. Though Gamesa continues to add less new capacity year-over-year in Europe, it has more than made up for the decline with success in the Americas, namely in Brazil, the U.S., Chile and Mexico, the report adds.
Siemens fell to the fifth spot globally in 2016, as it installed less new capacity onshore and offshore compared with 2015. Although it dominated the offshore sector, namely in Germany and the Netherlands, it added 30% less capacity onshore in 2016 than in 2015, as it was unable to capitalize on growth in the four main onshore markets. Its largest onshore markets included the U.S., Turkey and the U.K.
Photo courtesy of Vestas: A V112-3.0 MW wind turbine in Macarthur, Australia
