FTI Consulting has announced the release of FTI Intelligence’s latest renewable energy publication, Global Wind Supply Chain Update 2015. The report, Global Wind Supply Chain Update 2015, examines the supply chain situation for 12 key components (350+ suppliers) and three key materials (150+ suppliers), which account for more than 95 percent of a wind turbine’s total cost.
The key findings of the report include:
- More than 120 suppliers have collapsed or stayed out of the wind business in the past two years, including 88 from Asia, 23 from Europe and 18 from North America.
- A prolonged market contraction has forced major turbine OEMs to divest in-house non-core production assets and opt for extensive outsourcing in order to insulate from market fluctuations while remaining profitable.
- Most key components and materials are still facing overcapacity, but the regional distribution for key materials such as rare earth elements and forgings is extremely uneven and bottlenecks are expected on ultra-large tapered roller bearings (TRB) as these have gained popularity in China with almost all direct drive designs.
- Competition is now taking place not only on product quality and price, but also requires suppliers to provide value-added products and services to assist turbine OEMs and the end users to bring down the LCOE in order to compete with conventional energy sources.
- The uncertainty around the PTC leads FTI-CL Energy’s experts to conclude that the industry setback is most likely to retain in the U.S., and more Tier 2 and Tier 3 suppliers are likely to disappear in the next two to three years due to the expected collapse of Tier 3 turbine OEMs in China.
- The O&M market provides relatively clear market visibility going forward and many key components suppliers are entering into this segment, so heightened competition is expected.
