According to GWEC’s annual Supply Side Data report, 30 wind turbine manufacturers installed 104.7GW of new wind power capacity in 2021. Turbine manufacturers have shown worsening financial results due to an ultra-competitive price environment, higher external costs and continuing bottlenecks. 29,234 wind turbines were installed worldwide by 30 wind turbine manufacturers in 2021, of which 18 are from Asia Pacific and 9 from Europe.
Vestas enjoyed a record year to remain the number one turbine supplier, making 17.7% of the new installations. Chinese company Goldwind followed in second with 11.8%, holding its position from 2020, while Siemens Gamesa also had a record year with a 9.7% global market share, moving it up two positions to third place in 2021. Another Chinese company, Envision, is fourth with 8.65% of 2021’s market. GE Renewable Energy rounds out the top five with 8.55% of the market.
Vestas and Siemens Gamesa both enjoyed record years, with both companies leading the way in geographic diversification, with 37 and 32 countries delivered to, respectively. GE supplied 22 markets in 2021, while Goldwind and Envision only reached seven and three markets, respectively.
The average rated capacity of new turbines installed in 2021 surpassed the milestone of 3,500 kW while the rotor with the size greater than 140m accounted for more than 58% of the new installations. This is primarily due to the wind industry having a record year in new installations for offshore wind, while larger onshore wind turbines were installed in China after its onshore wind market entered the grid-parity era from 2021.
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.