Global turbine demand in 2008 offered room for established players, whose average installations grew by over 50 percent, and newer players, which saw installations jump by 100 percent and more, according to Emerging Energy Research’s annual Wind Turbine Market Share Update.

The turbine market remains dominated by Vestas, GE, Gamesa, Enercon, Suzlon, and Siemens who, as a group, accounted for 70 percent of last years’ installations. For their part, emerging competitors such as Sinovel, Dongfang, and Clipper made “modest inroads into the leaders’ market share”.

The firm highlighted that with more than 15 turbine vendors scrambling to take business from the big six, players with diversified order books are best positioned to grow in 2009 as the slowdown will be felt most acutely in the US, a market that weighs heavily in the order books of the major vendors. At the same time, China remains less impacted by the recession.

Turbine manufacturers installed almost 11 GW more turbines in 2008 than in the previous year – totaling nearly 30 GW of turbines activated during the year, almost double the volume in 2006, with the US and China accounting for 48 percent of that amount.