Wind turbine manufacturing trends in China

Due to the growing consensus on the adverse effects of fossil fuel usage in energy production, renewable energy has gained a considerable amount of attention, especially in the last decade. Many countries increased their installed renewable power capacity during this period. Currently, China is the world leader in terms of installed renewable power capacity. Among all renewables (except hydro), wind power is the one with the highest global installed capacity. Hence, this study focuses on the two leaders; "China" and "wind power". Considering the fact that wind turbines form the backbone of any wind power installation, the main focus is on the manufacturing and installation trends of wind turbines in China. In order to establish these trends, the wind turbine models manufactured by most of the well-known Chinese wind turbine manufacturers have been analyzed, along with 414 wind farm part installations. The results show that the most popular wind turbine model, both for manufacturing purposes and for installations, is 1500 kW (1.5 MW). The analyses also reveal that the preferred wind turbine capacities and rotor diameter sizes are increasing by time. Hence, the trend shows that the wind turbine capacities will continue to grow in the near future.