Nearly 100GW of new wind capacity was commissioned last year, with Vestas installing more than any other turbine supplier, according to a new report by research company BloombergNEF.
Its 2021 Global Wind Turbine Market Shares report found that developers brought 99.2GW of wind turbines online globally last year, breaking the previous year’s record of 98.5GW.
The vast majority (83%) of the capacity was added onshore. However, the 16.8GW of newly commissioned offshore wind marked a 161% increase compared with 2020.
BloombergNEF’s figures include partially commissioned wind farms that are installed though not necessarily connected to the grid in China, and grid-connected fully commercially operational wind farms in the rest of the world. For partially installed projects in China, only the completed capacity is counted.
Vestas regained its spot at the top of the ranking, adding 15.2GW worldwide – more than 3GW more than its nearest competitor, Goldwind, which added 12GW.
Siemens Gamesa (8.6GW) took the third spot in the ranking, while the previous year’s leading turbine maker, GE (8.3GW), fell to fifth place as installations dropped 22% in its US home market. Siemens Gamesa turbines built under licence in China by Shanghai Electric are credited to Shanghai Electric, a BloombergNEF spokesman advised.
“A new era of wind build is truly underway – a second near-100-gigawatt year represents a new status-quo for the industry,” said Isabelle Edwards, senior analyst at BloombergNEF and lead author of the report.
“As governments worldwide set net-zero ambitions targeting wind build several multiples higher than today, the wind industry has proved it can deliver sustained growth,” she added.
According to BNEF, China saw 55.8GW of new wind capacity commissioned last year, some 8GW more than the Chinese National Energy Administration reported towards the end of 2021.
The scheduled end to China’s offshore wind feed-in tariff saw developers install 14.2GW of offshore wind turbines, a 251% jump year-on-year.
China’s Shanghai Electric, Mingyang, Goldwind and CSSC Haizhuang capitalised on this growth to take the top four spots in BloombergNEF’s offshore wind ranking. Siemens Gamesa, which had topped the rankings since 2017, slipped down to sixth place, just behind Vestas.
“China dominated the offshore wind market as the industry yet again showed what it can do when subsidies are on the line,” said Oliver Metcalfe, head of wind research at BloombergNEF.
The US remains the second largest market for new wind expansion, adding 13GW in 2021. Vietnam broke into the top three global wind markets for the first time, bringing online 3.6GW of onshore and near-shore wind farms.
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