A new report from Navigant Research examines the significant forces shaping the global wind power industry’s supply chain, including analyses of more than 500 component and materials suppliers.
During the past 2 years, more flexible sourcing strategies across the wind power supply chain have resulted in cost reductions, enabling greater geographic market access while reducing risk and ensuring profitability for wind turbine vendors and their partners in the component value chain. Overcapacity, however, persists in most, though not all areas of the supply chain, providing purchasers with more choice, flexibility, and cost control. According to the report from Navigant Research, while demand in 2014 is projected to be less than 47,000MW, annual turbine manufacturing capacity, according to vendor estimates, is likely to exceed 71,000MW. Oversupply is allowing wind turbine manufacturers to more easily adjust what components they produce in-house, what is outsourced, and when a blend of both is advantageous for cost, technological, or geographic reasons. Blades are a particularly strong area of strategic product evolution and sourcing shifts, according to the report. Turbine manufacturers are making major, capital-intensive investment changes in how blades are designed, what materials are used, the manufacturing processes behind them, and what companies they source from. The report, “Supply Chain Assessment 2014 – Wind Energy,” examines the significant forces shaping the global wind power industry’s supply chain. The nearly 300-page report examines 11 component categories and profiles more than 300 component suppliers.
