Wind turbine manufacturers supplied a record amount of volume in 2023, according to Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) market intelligence.
GWEC found a total of 30 wind turbine manufacturers installed 120.7GW of new capacity last year, despite a challenging macroeconomic environment and continuing supply chain challenges.
Chinese suppliers installed 81.6GW in 2023, resulting in Chinese companies occupying four of the top five spots in this year’s supplier rankings.
Feng Zhao, Head of Strategy and Market Intelligence, GWEC, said: “Although the fierce price competition in China has been driving Chinese turbine OEMS to pursue opportunities in the overseas markets since 2021, 97 per cent of their installations in 2023 are still in their home market.
“Vestas, Siemens Gamesa, Nordex Group, GE Vernova and Enercon remain the top five turbine suppliers in Europe, in 2023.
“Chinese OEMs only installed 194.1MW of wind turbines in Europe last year, of which only 8.4MW was in the EU27.”
Goldwind emerged as top supplier in 2023, with Envision moving up three positions to second place and Denmark’s Vestas in third place.
Windey and Mingyang occupy fourth and fifth place respectively, with the latter the world’s largest offshore wind turbine supplier in 2023.
Sany and Dongfang round out the Chinese presence in the top 10.
Some 97% of Chinese manufacturer’s installations in 2023 were in the domestic market, the same level as the previous year.
Chinese companies installed 2.3GW outside of their home-market last year, with 63% of that in the Asia-Pacific.
Vestas, Siemens Gamesa, Nordex, GE Vernova and Enercon remained the top five turbine suppliers in Europe in 2023.
Globally, Vestas fell two positions from 2022 to third place, although with wind turbines installed in 36 countries the Danish company remains the most geographically diverse.
In terms of total global cumulative wind turbine installations, Vestas, Siemens Gamesa and GE Vernova remained the world’s top three wind turbine suppliers at the end of 2023.
Ben Backwell, CEO of GWEC, said: “The data in this report paints a picture of a global industry that has entered a period of accelerated growth.
“However, that growth is concentrated in mature markets like China, the US and Germany.
“For wind energy to play its full role in the push to achieve Net Zero, growth needs to speed up across the globe, particularly in emerging and developing economies.
“The wind industry can thrive globally if governments collaborate with industry to implement the energy transition through supportive, long term policymaking and multilateral cooperation.
“Despite a record year for wind energy installations, we need to make faster progress to achieve climate goals, and make sure market conditions support a healthy global manufacturing supply chain.
“The industry is ready to work with its partners across the world to create conditions for long-term market growth and deliver the tripling of renewables agreed at COP28.”