2019 was the year of consolidation for wind turbine manufacturers, with the biggest original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) increasing their combined market share.

“The top five turbine OEMs – Vestas, SGRE, GE, Goldwind and Envision – increased their combined market share by 10 per cent from two years ago, capturing 68 per cent of global capacity,” Wood Mackenzie principal analyst Shashi Barla said.

Notably, Denmark’s Vestas became the first manufacturer to install more than 10 gigawatts (GW) of wind capacity in a single year, with 11.3GW of installed capacity in over 35 countries.

In another first, more than half of its installations came from the Americas with demand driven by the US, Mexico and Argentina.

Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) took the second position with its dominance of the 1.9GW UK offshore market and achieving over 1GW of onshore installations in the US and Spain.

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GE trailed in third place with projects in 24 markets, including first-ever turbine installations in Greece, Oman, Jordan, Kazakhstan and Chile.

China’s largest OEMs — Goldwind, Envision and MingYang — also recorded their highest ever installs in 2019, though these were predominantly located within the country itself.

The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to result in near-term hurdles for wind turbine OEMs.

“Wind turbine OEMs with exposure to global wind turbine supply chain hubs including China, India and Spain will see a negative market share impact in 2020,” Barla explained.

“This is primarily due to coronavirus lockdown measures that have obstructed manufacturing facilities in these countries.”

However, the outlook for the sector over the next decade remains healthy.

In late March, Woodmac forecast that global power capacity additions are expected to sit at an annual average of 77GW from 2020 to 2029.

This represents a growth of 112 per cent in global installed capacity from the end of 2019 to the end of 2029.