Danish manufacturer Vestas holds the title of the world’s largest supplier of wind turbines in 2020 across the onshore and offshore wind, according to the latest preliminary rankings for the world’s top five wind turbine original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) released by the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) Market Intelligence.

Vestas is ahead thanks to its wide geographic diversification strategy, with new installations in 32 markets last year and strong performance in the United States, Australia, Brazil, Netherland, France, Poland, Russia, and Norway.

GE Renewable Energy moved up two positions to second place, mainly due to explosive growth in its home market, the U.S., and its strong position in Spain in 2020.

Despite the disruption caused to local supply chains and project execution by the Covid-19 pandemic in the U.S., the American manufacturer reported more than 10 GW of installations, making it the number one supplier in the U.S. for the second year in a row.

Chinese supplier Goldwind retained the third position in 2020. It achieved a record year in its home market with more than 12 GW installations. Its new installations in overseas markets passed the 1 GW milestone for the first time. Goldwind held the top spot in China last year, but the supplier lost market share at home due to strong competition from tier 2 local suppliers.

Meanwhile, Chinese supplier Envision ranked fourth in 2020, moving up from the fifth position in 2019 by taking advantage of strong market growth in its home market. More than 10 GW was installed by the company in a single year, a company record.

China leads the world in new offshore wind capacity installation for the third year in a row with over 3 GW of new capacity in 2020, according to GWEC.

Although Siemens Gamesa had installations in 31 markets last year, the manufacturer fell three positions to fifth place. The company reported 8.7 GW of new installations in 2020 – 1.2 GW lower than the previous year – primarily due to a relatively slow year for offshore wind in Europe. However, it was the world’s largest offshore wind turbine supplier in 2020.

Feng Zhao, head of strategy and market intelligence at GWEC, said, “2020 was an incredible year for the wind industry. Chinese and American turbine manufacturers had a record of new installations that saw most of them moving up in global turbine OEM market rankings. The world’s two largest markets, China and the United States, had the lion’s share in global wind installation in 2020.”

Meanwhile, a market outlook published by the GWEC Intelligence expects 71.3 GW of wind power installations in 2020 despite the impact of Covid-19, a 6% reduction from the pre-pandemic forecast.

Rahul is a staff reporter at Mercom India. Before entering the world of renewables, Rahul was head of the Gujarat bureau for The Quint. He has also worked for DNA Ahmedabad and Ahmedabad Mirror. Hailing from a banking and finance background, Rahul has also worked for JP Morgan Chase and State Bank of India. More articles from Rahul Nair.