By Jason Deign

Right now it is one of the most impressive renewable energy projects in the world. Stand at the centre of CEZ Group’s Fântânele-Cogealac wind park in Dobrogea, within Romania’s Constanta County, and you will see turbines stretching out into the distance in every direction. 

Covering an expanse of land measuring six by 12 kilometres, Fântânele-Cogealac is the biggest onshore wind farm in Europe. It provides up to almost 10% of Romania’s renewable energy, with an installed capacity of 600MW delivered by 240 2.5MW turbines. 

And the logo embellishing the turbines for this landmark European project? One of Europe’s wind manufacturing giants, perhaps, such as Enercon or Siemens of Germany, or Vestas of Denmark? Not at all: for Fântânele-Cogealac, CEZ chose GE Energy of Atlanta, USA. 

According to analysts at BTM Consult, a part of Navigant Consulting, booming sales worldwide led GE to knock Vestas off the top of the global turbine manufacturing market in 2012. This was no mean feat. 

Vestas had been the world’s top turbine maker since 2000, BTM says, and GE was not even second in 2011. 

Aris Karcanias of BTM says it came up from third place to grab 15% of the market predominantly as a result of strong American demand for turbines driven by a stampede to capitalise on the US Wind Production Tax Credit (PTC),which US Congress extended for new wind power installations that begin or are “under construction” by December 31, 2013.

US market

“The success behind GE, last year specifically, is the fact that GE has such a dominance and strong hold over the US market,” he says. “About three quarters of their installations were based in the US last year. 

“There was this mad rush and they were the ones best positioned to capitalise upon that and therefore boost their position,” says the analyst.

By the same token, this implies GE is by no means certain to remain as the world’s top turbine manufacturer in 2013. Over-reliance on a single market, says Karcanias, “is not the optimal strategy. Long-term, it is not sustainable for growth.

“You have seen the impact that has on some of the Chinese players like Goldwind, United Power and Ming Yang. Yes, they have spread their wings out of China, but still they rely extremely heavily for the bulk of installations and revenue on their domestic market,” says Karcanias.

Chinese turbine makers, he adds, dropped out of the industry’s top five in 2012. But GE does have a few things going for it. The first is that, as the Fântânele-Cogealac project demonstrates, it is taking non-US wind markets seriously. 

Besides the giant CEZ project, in recent months GE has trumpeted contract signings with Energia Verde Ventuno’s Cerna Wind Park in Romania, Taiwan Power Company in Taiwan, Renova Energia in Brazil and Cartier Wind Energy for the largest wind farm in Canada.

European footprint

Meanwhile, in January a consortium comprising GE Energy Financial Services, MEAG (the asset management arm of Munich Re and ERGO) and EDF Energies Nouvelles bought 32 operating wind farms in France from Iberdrola, expanding GE’s European wind industry footprint.

At the same time, though, GE can build on other strengths, including supply chain expertise. 

“They have been very consistent about how they have developed their supply chain strategy: how they have outsourced, how they have developed using six-sigma, lean production techniques, and some of the hand-me-downs from the automotive industry,” says Karcanias. 

“They have learnt all these techniques and have deployed them very effectively. And they also have the added advantage that they don’t cater to just wind, they cater to a whole wealth of generation technologies across the globe, and have production bases across the world.”

This could enable the company to quickly switch turbine manufacturing to new markets as and where opportunities arise. Apart from Siemens, few other turbine makers have such global manufacturing capabilities and supply chains. 

Reducing costs

Furthermore, GE does not appear to be resting on its laurels as far as manufacturing is concerned. 

Last November the company announced a tie-up with Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University and the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory to investigate improvements to blade production that it claims could reduce costs by up to 40%. 

All this adds up to a package that delivers plenty of comfort to project developers and owners, giving GE something of an ‘IBM aura’ within the wind industry: you would never get sacked for recommending it. 

Peter Zachrisson, the managing director of wind farm developer Stena Renewable in Sweden, says he buys GE turbines because: “It is a reliable and good product, well documented, with a large company behind it.

“It is one of the largest companies in the world, with huge knowledge when it comes to supply chains. We are going to be keeping our assets so it is important to have a reliable supplier.”