Manufacturers
There are approximately 60 companies worldwide involved in the manufacture of wind turbines. Although primitive wind powered machines have been in existence since the middle ages, the modern focus on renewable environmentally friendly energy production, combined with a fast growing population of ever-increasing energy consumers has lead to a dramatic increase in the market for wind turbines.
The Danish manufacturer, Vastas, is currently the market leader in wind turbines although the rapid growth of their competitors has seen their market share fall from around 30% in 2007 to less than half that today. The top ten list of Wind Turbine Manufacturers is as follows:
- Vestas - 14.8%
- Sinovel 11.1%
- GE Wind Energy 9.6%
- Goldwind 9.5%
- Enercon 7.2%
- Suzlon Group 6.9% (inc Suzlon Energy (India) and RePower (Germany)
- Dongfang Electric 6.7%
- Gamesa 6.6%
- Siemens Wind Power 5.9%
- United Power (èććšć) 4.2%
Chinese turbine manufacturers have enjoyed significant market share growth in recent years, with Sinovel recently overtaking GE Wind Energy for the number two position in the market.
Northern Ireland based Westwind, part of the J.A Graham Group, manfacture a range of wind turbines ranging from 3Kw up to 20Kw. The 3KW Turbine is available in 48v, 120v battery charging and 240v heating, grid-tied or a combination of both while the 20Kw is available for 240v battery charging, heating, grid-tied or a combination thereof.