Wind turbines reached 99.2 GW in 2021

The wind industry posted another record in 2021 as total additions fell below 100 GW for the second year in a row, according to BloombergNEF (BNEF).

BNEF’s 2021 Global Wind Turbine Market Shares report reveals that developers installed some 99.2 GW of wind turbines in 2021, up from 98.5 GW on order the previous year. While the majority was added onshore (83%), new wind turbine additions rose to 16.8 GW, an increase of 161% compared to 2020.

Vestas regained its lead by adding 15.2 GW worldwide. This is a 3.2 gigawatt lead over its closest competitor, Goldwind, which was second with 12 GW. Siemens Gamesa took third place in the ranking.
General Electric, the previous year’s top wind turbine maker, fell to fifth place as installations fell 22% in its home market, the US.

BNEF identified 55.8 GW of new wind capacity on order in China last year. Despite global commodity inflation and supply chain chaos, annual installations in China were just two gigawatts short of the record set in 2020.

The scheduled end of China’s offshore wind feed-in tariff saw developers install 14.2 GW of offshore wind turbines, a triple jump (251%) year over year. Shanghai Electric, Mingyang, Goldwind and China’s CSSC Haizhuang capitalized on this growth to take the top four spots in BNEF’s offshore wind power rankings. Siemens Gamesa, which had been at the top of the ranking since 2017, dropped to sixth place, just behind Vestas.

The United States remains the second largest market for new wind power, adding 13 GW in 2021. Along with China, it accounted for two-thirds of global new wind capacity last year. Vietnam broke into the top three global wind markets for the first time, with 3.6 GW of onshore and nearshore wind farms.