According to a report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), the global wind power industry is relatively stable compared to 2009 in terms of newly installed capacity. As China's strong growth offset the weakness of the United States and Europe, global installed capacity for wind power grew flat in 2010. It is expected that there will be a 21% rebound by 2011, but turbine prices will remain weak.

The Chinese market is a "stabilizer"

According to reports, the new onshore and offshore wind power generation devices in 2010 are expected to reach 37.7GW, which is 2% lower than in 2009.

The growth rate of different regions in the world this year will be very different. The growth of developing countries will be faster, and China will add more than 25% of the installed capacity in 2009. China's installed capacity growth is driven by a record level of investment. In the third quarter of 2010, China’s investment accounted for nearly half of the global new wind power project funding. It is estimated that about one-half of the world's wind turbines will go offline in China this year.

In 2010, turbine prices around the world remained weak. The latest BNEF wind turbine index shows that the average turbine price in 2010 was US$1.4 million per MW, compared with the 2008 high of US$1.79 million per MW. BNEF expects prices to continue to fall in 2011 as turbine production capacity in all parts of the world exceeds demand.

According to William Young, research director of wind power industry at BNEF, “China has become the world's leading wind power market in the past two years. China’s turbine manufacturers have stepped into the ranks of top manufacturers in the world, but at the same time, competitors in Europe, the United States and Asia have also received opportunities. ."

Next year is expected to rebound. Compared with the rapid development of wind power in China, the United States is expected to see a 39% decline this year. The U.S. market continues to face challenges from the financial crisis, low electricity prices, and uncertain mid- and long-term policy environments. Low natural gas prices are still a matter of concern because they reduce the cost of gas-fired power generation, making it even harder for wind energy project developers to ask utility companies for attractive prices for power purchase agreements. In fact, not only wind power, all types of clean energy asset financing in the United States have remained relatively weak. In the third quarter of this year, there was a total investment of 4.4 billion U.S. dollars, compared with 5.1 billion U.S. dollars in the second quarter.

According to BNEF's forecast, by the end of 2011, new global wind power capacity will rebound to 45 GW, and will continue to grow in the next few years. Between 2012 and 2013, there will be an average increase of 48 GW per year.

BNEF believes that with the growth of non-traditional wind power markets from Latin America and Asia, wind power will increase by 21% in 2011 to 45GW. And from 2010 to 2013, offshore wind power capacity will more than double, from the current annual increase of 1.3GW to 3.3GW per year, and Europe will account for 80% of this, especially the United Kingdom and Germany.

BNEF CEO Michael Liebreich stated that “the installed capacity always lags behind financing, so what we are seeing now is due to a sharp drop in investment from late 2008 to early 2009. The level of investment in Europe and the United States is slowly recovering, and Asia in particular is China has occupied a leading position."