Wind OEM giant Vestas ended 2019 with a record 16.4GW in the bag and the prospect of a final tally even higher once smaller unannounced deals are added later.
The total easily surpasses the previous record 14.2GW it notched up in 2018 , helped by a year-end flurry from markets spanning China, Russia, and North America.
The unannounced orders won’t be added until the Danish group posts its 2019 full-year results on 5 February, but are likely to comfortably push it past the 17GW mark.
Vestas in its third-quarter results in November said it was seeing “unprecedented” activity levels as it executed its bulging order book – but like other turbine OEMs reported pressure on profitability from rising costs and factors such as trade tariffs.
The Danish group is among a small group of OEMs tipped to emerge triumphant from the wind equipment sector’s unfolding consolidation process.
As well as its strong turbine orders and wide geographic reach, Vestas is also underpinned by a service business that grew by 8% in the third quarter, a performance described as “stellar” by recently-installed CEO Henrik Andersen.
