28 July/August 2013 | Renewable Energy Focus

Rush for PTC sees the US edge China out of wind market lead

THE MARKET for wind energy continued

to grow in 2012 despite the diffi culties in

fi nancing and slow economic growth in

many OECD countries. By the end of the

year, more than 222,500 wind turbines with

an aggregated capacity of approximately 281GW were

installed worldwide. Of this, 44.9GW went up in 2012.

This newly installed capacity

represents an increase of about 7%

compared to capacity added in 2011.

The world market growth rate in

terms of cumulative capacity was

about 19%, down slightly on the 21%

registered in 2011. The average growth

rate over the last fi ve years remains

at an impressive 24.6%, although this

is down from 26.5% in 2011.

With an exceptional year due

to uncertainty in the Production

Tax Credit (PTC) extension after

2012 [with developers rushing to

get projects developed so they could

benefi t from the incentive while it was

available], the USA regained the top

position as the largest national mar-

ket with 13.1GW newly installed (2011:

6.8 GW). This was slightly ahead of

China with 13.0GW and Europe with

12.7GW. The table summarises the

status of the wind industry in terms

of accumulated and 2012 installed

capacity by region.

Within Europe, Germanys’ onshore

market got new momentum - The

newly installed off shore capacity grew

in 2012 to 2.4GW, compared to only

2GW in 2011. As in years before, the

German market is still the largest

European wind market with regard to

cumulated installed capacity (31.5GW).

Turbine suppliers suff erTurbine manufacturers were

under intense pressure again in 2012

to cut costs in a buyer’s market.

Germany-based Fuhrländer fi led

for bankruptcy and several major

players announced reduced profi t or

losses. While struggling with major

restructuring (5000 jobs lost), sig-

nifi cant management change and a

€40mn provision for gearbox war-

ranty on 376 units of its V90-3MW

machine, Vestas remains the larg-

est manufacturer in terms of accu-

mulated installed capacity (19.6%).

However GE Wind took the lead in

terms of 2012 market share (15.5%).

The Chinese manufacturer Gold-wind, which held the second place in

2011 dropped to seventh position in

the world rankings. Due to the strong

domestic market, turbine manufac-

turers from China however continued

to account for a total of four of the

global top 10 suppliers in 2012.

In terms of technology trends

for onshore turbines, low-wind site

turbines with larger and larger rotor

diameters on existing platforms are

becoming the rule:

Vestas released the V126-3.0MW in •

September and already announced

its fi rst order to Finland in

November;

Enercon• presented both the E92

and E115, respectively 2.35MW

and 2.5MW, to complete its low-to-

medium product range;

Goldwind is targeting the ultra-low •

wind speed market with the

GW93/1500 of which the fi rst

prototype was installed in April

and obtained certifi cation from

Chinese accreditation institution

CGC in October;

Suzlon• announced for 2013 the

fi rst prototype of S111, a further

extension of its 2.1MW fl eet.

New markets onshoreVery large onshore projects are

still mainly found in mature markets

such as the US, UK, India and China

but emerging regions with ample

wind resources are off ering growing

opportunities:

In Australia, renewable energy tar-•

gets are pushing utilities for massive

Focus on renewable power generation

Emerging regions with ample wind resources are off ering growing

opportunities for onshore development. Pictured here a wind

turbine installation in Pchery, a village in the Czech Republic.

Photo: Shutterstock/BESTWEB.

REF0413_Wind Status 28 30-07-2013 12:18:22

29July/August 2013 | Renewable Energy Focus

investments, i.e. AGL’s Silverton

1GW project and Origin Energy’s

Stockyard Hill 547MW project;

In South Africa, the fi rst and sec-•

ond rounds of tenders allocated

eight and seven projects totalling

634MW and 563MW respectively,

with an increasing requirement for

local manufacturing;

In Morocco, a wind park portfo-•

lio of 200MW at three sites started

construction in 2012 and will com-

plete commissioning in 2013, while

another round to submit tenders

for 850MW of wind projects under

an IPP programme was started late

2012;

In Mexico fi nance was approved •

for the 396MW Mareña project in

Oaxaca but wind projects are also

developing in other states;

In Argentina, • Southern Wind Company awarded a 1.35GW EPC

contract to Beijing Construction Engineering Group including a

300km HV line from the wind farm

in Patagonia to the rest of the grid;

South-East Europe still has large •

projects worth mentioning too:

in Bulgaria, the 300MW Mur-

gash project and several others in

Romania including C-Tech SRL’s

189MW project with Chinese wind

turbine manufacturer Sinovel.

Off shoreTurbine development for the

off shore sector is largely dominated by

direct drive permanent magnet gener-

ators. Among others, Alstom installed

its fi rst prototype of the 6MW Hali-

ade 150 at an onshore site in France;

CSIC Haizhuang its 5.0MW 154 at

the Rudong demonstration off shore

wind farm, and newcomer Mer-vento from Finland, its 3.6-118 dedi-

cated to cold climate near-shore and

low-wind off shore. Floating turbines

are also attracting interest in France,

Japan, Spain and UK with a series of

research projects as well as prototype

deployments announced.

The off shore wind sector remains

small on the global scale compared

to onshore. In 2012, 1296MW was

installed, up from 470MW in 2011

but lower than the 1.4GW installed in

2010. In Europe (90% of the world off -

shore market), off shore represented

9% of the total installed wind power

capacity in 2012.

The UK continues to be the main

market accounting for approximately

66% of the new off shore installed

capacity. In Germany the sector was

seriously impaired by uncertainties

over liability for delays in securing

grid connection. As a result, no fi nan-

cial closing was achieved in Germany

but in the UK there was fi nancial

closing for three projects (Lincs, Wal-

ney 2 and Gunfl eet Sands - the latter

two refi nancing of minority stakes)

and one in Belgium (Northwind). On

the equity side, more than 4GW in net

planned capacity was exchanged with

a noticeable diversifi cation of tbuyers,

i.e. non-fi nancial and non-utility play-

ers being increasingly active.

Off shore construction highlights

were the completion of large wind

farms in the UK and the installa-

tion of foundations in German waters.

Large dedicated vessels have also been

delivered in number. In France, the

fi rst round of tenders resulted in close

to 2GW allocated with a second 1GW

round planned in 2013.

Outside Europe, off shore wind is

growing in China with 127MW of

inter-tidal and near-shore projects.

Demonstration projects took place in

South Korea (3 MW) and in Japan

with a 0.1MW fl oating turbine.

Focus on renewable power generation

Cumulated installed capacity

2012(GW)

Installed capacity 2012

(GW)

Estimated electricity

generation 2012(TWh/y)

Europe 109.4 12.7 219

North America 68.7 14.9 172

South America 3.1 1.2 7

Asia 95.4 15.5 162

Oceania 3.3 0.4 8

Africa 1.0 0.2 2

World Total 281.2 44.9 570

Largest national Market USA 60.1 USA 13.1

Off shore (of the above) 5.4 1.3

Table 2: Summary of the global wind power market in 2012.

The UK continues to be the main off shore wind power market accounting for approximately

66% of the newly installed capacity in 2012. Photo: Shutterstock/ssuaphotos.

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