Research and consulting company Global Data has published a report giving data and predictions for the future: “Wind Turbine Rotor Blades – Global Market Size, Average Price, Competitive Landscape and Key Country Analysis to 2020″
According to the report, China is a major manufacturing hub of wind turbine rotor blades. This is hardly surprising as China is currently the largest wind power market in the world. This leading market position is likely to remain as China’s manufacturers are supported by government subsidies and favourable policies. China produced approximately 25% of the world’s rotor blades in 2012. It will remain the leading global consumer of wind turbine rotor blades over the coming years, with its market value expected to increase from almost $2 billion in 2012 to $3.7 billion by 2020. China and the US-installed 23,261 and 20,182 rotor blades, respectively and together contributed to more than 65% of installations throughout the world. India was third with 3,306 blades, contributing to 5% of the total.
Harshavardhan Reddy Nagatham, Analyst for GlobalData, states in the Report:
“Increasing levels of wind power generation have given the wind turbine and component manufacturing industry a significant boost over the past years and have caused it to spread geographically. We now expect the global wind power market to demonstrate further steady growth over the coming years, with annual turbine installations to increase from 48.3 GW in 2014 to 61.4 GW by 2020. While European nations such as Denmark, Germany and Spain have been pioneers in this industry, a major shift to the Asia-Pacific region has occurred, particularly in China, India and Vietnam. This can be attributed to the availability of low-cost labour in the region, as well as government support for the local turbine and component manufacturing industry.”
China’s demand for power is increasing, but much of its electricity generation is not green and produces an unhealthy carbon footprint. But in an effort to reduce carbon emissions the Chinese government has set goals to generate 15% of electricity from renewable sources and reduce CO2 emissions by 40–45% by 2020. China’s government has therefore decided that wind power is the most viable energy source for the future and therefore China is likely to dominate the wind turbine rotor blade market for the foreseeable future.
