China accounts for lion’s share of offshore turbines ordered in 2019

As noted in the Wood Mackenzie report, Global Wind Turbine Order Analysis: Q1 2020, China was integral to growth in orders for offshore and onshore turbines, with developers in the country ordering an astounding 50 GW of wind turbine capacity overall in 2019.

Wood Mackenzie said a ‘perfect demand storm’ last year yielded three consecutive quarters of orders of more than 12 GW of turbines in China.

“Demand in China was primarily driven by the expiration of the feed-in-tariff but was also enabled by new transmission capacity,” said Wood Mackenzie research director Luke Lewandowski.

“Excluding China, a near-2-GW surge in offshore orders in Taiwan last year also resulted in firm order intake in the Asia Pacific region, exceeding offshore order intake in Europe for the first time,” said Mr Lewandowski.

Mr Lewandowski said increasing demand in China for turbines in the 6-8 MW class, and commercialisation of offshore models in the 10 MW range, increased the average rating for offshore wind turbines.