European Wind Turbine Market Outlook Update Q4 2020

Despite major disruptions to production & assembly, installation of new wind farms over the first half of 2020 was “Business As Usual”, a similar trend to follow during Q4 2020

The wind industry supply chain experienced major disruptions in the first semester, particularly in relation to the production and assembly of wind turbine components and to imports of raw materials and other subcomponents, mainly from Asia. In Europe, many factories experienced short temporary closures. Some facilities had a reduction of workers due to the implementation of social distancing. Consequently, the construction of new wind farms in Europe was impacted both when the COVID-19 outbreak in Asia disrupted supply chains, as well as when lockdown policies across several European countries affected the movement of workers and goods soon after. However, despite major disruptions to production and assembly during Q1 and Q2 2020, the installation of new wind farms over the first half of 2020 was comparable to previous years. Europe managed to install 5.1 GW, 3.9 GW of which were onshore and 1.2 GW were offshore. The onshore installation figures are just above the average of the previous three years (3.7 GW).