Wood Mackenzie report says China accounted for 50GW of new demand last year

A record number of wind turbine orders totalling almost 100GW were placed in 2019, up 39GW on 2018, according to new analysis from Wood Mackenzie.

The researchers said in the 'Global Wind Turbine Order Analysis: Q1 2020' report that the orders last year were worth an estimated $78bn.

Almost $25bn of that total was in the fourth quarter, which saw an 8.4GW increase on 2018, they said.

Developers in China accounted for 50GW of the orders, the report said.

Wood Mackenzie research director Luke Lewandowski said: “Demand in China was primarily driven by the expiration of the feed-in tariff but was also enabled by new transmission capacity and the easing of red warnings in Northern provinces.”

The global offshore order intake reached 17GW last year, with orders in China accounting for 76% of total demand, Wood Mackenzie said.

“A nearly 2GW surge in offshore orders in Taiwan last year – and to a lesser extent in Vietnam – resulted in firm offshore wind turbine order intake in Asia Pacific, excluding China, exceeding offshore order intake in Europe for the first time within the annual period,” said Lewandowski.

Demand for 4MW-plus onshore turbine platforms increased by 202% year-on-year, with 8GW ordered in China alone.

Developers globally ordered more than 1GW for seven different onshore turbine models rated at 4MW or higher last year, the report said.

“A lower share of orders for offshore projects in Europe lowered the global average turbine rating for offshore orders to 5.8GW,” said Lewandowski.

“However, increasing demand in China for turbines in the 6-8MW class and accelerated commercialisation of offshore models rated more than 10MW have increased the market’s average rating year-over-year,” he added.

Wood Mackenzie said Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas dominated in 2019.

The company won the most wind turbine order capacity in every quarter, averaging 4.5GW per quarter and nearly 18GW for the year.

“Chinese OEMs claimed six spots in the full year top 10 ranking for order intake, led by SEwind which recorded 4.9GW of offshore orders.

“This was the first time a non-Western OEM won the top spot for the sector,” added Lewandowski.