OEM Vestas has retained its recently attained top position in the German wind market as turbine additions on land and permits have started to slowly recover last year, according to latest numbers from the country’s onshore wind agency.

The Danish turbine maker took a 35.2% market share on land registered as operational in 2020, preliminary figures from Fachagentur Windenergie an Land indicated.

Vestas was followed by embattled German manufacturer Enercon – which had for many years led market share statistics in the country – with a 32.1% share. Compatriot turbine maker Nordex came third with 15.4% of registered wind additions, and GE fourth with 9.8%.

Fachagentur numbers also showed the country's gross onshore wind build-out last year totalled 1.4GW, which, subtracting the 200MW of capacity decommissioned, amounts to a net gain of 1.2GW. While a modest rise, it was an uptick from the 958MW in net additions in 2019.

Germany's onshore wind market had almost collapsed in 2019 from earlier years, mostly due to increased not-in-my-backyard opposition from anti-wind groups and slow-rolling permitting.

The figures from Fachagentur differ slightly from those to be published later today by several groups, including German wind energy federation BWE and manufacturers' group VDMA Power Systems, which rely directly on installation data from construction sites and also include some turbines that may not have been registered yet.

Siemens Gamesa had to share the fifth place with Vensys in 2020 as both companies reached a 3.2% market share, followed by Eno Energy with 0.9% and Lagerwey with 0.3%.

Last year, 2.9GW in onshore wind turbines received installation permits, according to the Fachagentur. That was considerably more than the 2GW permitted in 2019, and bodes well for a more sustained recovery in installation figures.

Wind

Vestas keeps lead as German onshore wind turbine market shows signs of recovery