Top 10 Global Wind Power Manufacturers

Written by Paul Smith

The year 2009 saw a great increase in the total global renewable wind energy capacity moving up from 121 to 159 Giga-watts. China lead the way in growth whilst the United States maintained its overall lead in the total wind power stakes. This is according to the latest figures from REN21 the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century.

There are just so many places around the world both onshore and offshore that can benefit from added wind power generation. It can be as little as a small community project or a massive wind farm as has recently been announced in the Mojave Dessert. As the investment gathers pace the amount of technical advances is also increasing leading to better efficiency and both lower installation costs as well as lower cost per mW of output.

Wind power generators are very equipment centric. There are many parts to a wind generator and if these are multiplied in a large wind farm installation of several hundred or thousand you can see the potential for manufacturers and job creation. Little wonder then the top manufacturing countries of the world are leading the way. However, due to the logistics of moving large amounts of equipment there is a move towards investment in manufacturing facilities near to the installation locations. This will also offset the political fallout from foreign manufacturers moving into markets where the home supplier would be favored.

The top 10 manufacturers of 2009 were:

Vestas (Denmark) 13%
GE Wind (US) 12%
Sinovel (China) 9%
Enercon (Germany) 9%
GoldWind (China) 7%
Dongfang (China) 7%
Gamesa (Spain) 7%
Suzlon (India) 6%
Siemens (Germany) 6%
RePower (Germany) 3%
Others amount to 21%

The top 10 by Country:

China 23%
Germany 18%
Denmark 13%
US 12%
Spain 7%
India 6%
other 23%