Wind turbine installations reached record 121.6 GW in 2024, led by China

Wind turbine installations reached another record last year, with 121.6 GW of new capacity worldwide – double the capacity of 2019.

New research by BloombergNEF (BNEF) shows that the wide majority of new wind additions (109.9 GW) were on land, while just 10% or 11.7 GW were offshore.

Growth was largely driven by China, which accounted for 70% of global installations. Six of the top 10 turbine makers last year are based in that country, and for the first time since BNEF started publishing its annual wind report in 2013, the top four turbine manufacturers are from mainland China. Together, Goldwind, Envision, Windey and Mingyang added 58.5 GW of new wind capacity.

Market slowing down outside of China  

In contrast, European and US manufacturers fell out of the top three, and wind installations outside of Mainland China fell by 10%. Danish manufacturer Vestas was the only non-Chinese supplier to remain in the top five, with 10.2 GW of installations in 2024.

“Chinese turbine makers increasingly dominate the global wind energy business,” said Cristian Dinca, wind associate at BloombergNEF and lead author of the report. “Installations are soaring in mainland China as provinces race to meet renewable energy targets by the end of 2025. While mainland China’s manufacturers look to expand sales abroad, they remain heavily reliant on their home market, which delivered almost all of their capacity additions in 2024.” 

Shrinking US wind market

While US-based solar firms had a record year in 2024, the US wind market shrank for the fourth year in a row, with just 5.4 GW installed – 10 times less than new solar capacity.

This is the lowest amount of new wind capacity seen in a decade, with US project developers hampered by supply chain issues, including the near-doubling in turbine delivery lead times, shortages of transformers and other electrical equipment, and high interest rates. 

But despite political headwinds under the Trump administration, BNEF says the wind market still has a large project pipeline.

“The offshore wind projects are more vulnerable to changes in US government policy under President Donald Trump than projects on land,” said Oliver Metcalfe, head of wind research at BloombergNEF. “The onshore wind industry has more bipartisan support and is an economically attractive option in many places where power demand is increasing.” 

Siemens Gamesa leads offshore installations

In the offshore market, Siemens Gamesa ranked as the top turbine supplier with 4GW of additions, surpassing Vestas and Chinese firms for the first time since 2020. The Europe-based manufacturer more than doubled its capacity compared with 2023, and provided turbines for almost three-quarters of offshore wind farms outside of mainland China last year. 

Offshore wind capacity was up 6% last year compared with 2023, with more than half of new wind additions in Mainland China, despite a slowdown from the previous year.