Driven by China, wind turbine orders rose 23% worldwide in the first half of the year and accounted for $42 billion in investments, up 3% year-on-year, according to a renewable energy specialist. Of a total of 91.2 gigawatts (GW), Chinese orders alone account for 70 GW for its domestic market and 5 GW for overseas, research firm Wood Mackenzie said in a press release on Monday.
Fall in hiring in the offshore sector
“In contrast, Western manufacturers are struggling to keep up,” he stresses. They are faced with “China’s competitive advantages in terms of price and availability” but also “weak demand in Western markets, as well as political uncertainty, inflation and other cost pressures, (which) also reduced activity in the United States and Europe.” Western manufacturers only contributed 13% of global order intake in the first half. Excluding China, orders fell by 16% (-2.3 GW) over the period. They even fell by 42% year-on-year in the Americas and Europe, with combined orders of less than 10 GW.
Furthermore, while onshore activity (onshore wind turbines) increased in the first half of the year, the offshore sector experienced difficulties, with orders down 38% year-on-year (-4.1 GW) due to “project economic conditions (which have) slowed the market”. “The offshore market has almost 30 GW of conditional orders worldwide, including 21 GW for projects in Europe and the US, but difficult economic conditions continue to delay their conversion into firm orders,” according to Luke Lewandowski.
Source: BFM TV
