In 2018, low wind speed wind farms and offshore wind power jointly promoted the large-scale development of blades, further promoting the continued high-speed growth of carbon fiber in the wind power field. VESTAS has become the world's largest user of the carbon fiber industry and is growing rapidly.
According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance's "2018 Global Wind Turbine Manufacturers Market Share Ranking": From the market demand perspective: in 2018, the world's new onshore and offshore wind power installed capacity was 45.4GW and 4.3GW, of which China continues to lead the world Wind power market. In 2018, the total new installed capacity in the Chinese market was 21GW (including 19.3GW onshore and 1.7GW offshore wind power installations), accounting for 42% of the global market. From the market supply perspective: Vestas' new onshore wind turbine installations in 2018 With a capacity of up to 10.09GW, it is far ahead with a new market share of 22% of global onshore wind power. Goldwind Technology became the second-largest wind turbine manufacturer in the world in 2018, with a global market share of 15% onshore wind turbines in 2018; Chinese manufacturers accounted for half of the top 10 global wind turbine manufacturers.
Will VESTAS 'application of carbon fiber bring a demonstration effect to the industry? The answer from Chinese wind power counterparts is: The key lies in the cost competitive advantage of China's carbon fiber industry. At present, VESTAS basically has the world's lowest cost carbon fiber resources (approximately $ 13-14 / kg). However, once these carbon fibers enter China, they need to pay approximately 32.7% of customs duties and value-added tax. In addition, coupled with the low-cost composite material technology of pultruded plate bonded beam caps protected by VESTAS patent, China's existing prepreg laying technology or fabric infusion technology is difficult to compete with in terms of composite material cost. China's wind power industry faces the potential risk of losing competitiveness due to the lack of "low-cost carbon fiber and composite materials processes."
Risk has always been parallel to opportunity. China's existing carbon fiber composite material industry foundation is feasible to create a new generation of low-cost carbon fiber beam caps.