The EU has committed to roughly double its installed wind-power capacity by 2030, to 425 gigawatts. Britain's 50GW target for offshore-wind capacity by the same year requires a quadrupling. Over the past two decades Europe's solar-panel producers have been decimated by cheap imports, but its wind-turbine manufacturers—Vestas, Siemens Gamesa and Nordex—are still mighty. Each of the three has a larger installed base outside China than any other company, including America's GE Vernova, according to BloombergNEF.
In 2024 China accounted for more than 70% of new wind-power installations globally, according to Bruegel. Central-government subsidies for wind developers have been phased out, weighing on supplier prices. In 2024 China had the capacity to produce 99GW-worth of turbines but installed only 87GW. Chinese turbine-makers' operating margins (before depreciation and amortisation) sank from an average of 18% in 2021 to 10% in 2024, falling below those of their European counterparts for the first time in years.
That has pushed Chinese firms such as Goldwind and Mingyang abroad. They added 9GW-worth of units overseas in 2025, up from 2GW in 2024 and 1GW in 2023, according to Wood Mackenzie. They captured around 18% of the global market outside China in 2025, triple the figure in 2024, though in Europe they have been given "a clear political signal" that they are "unwelcome."
Worries include that Chinese offshore-wind equipment could be used to spy on European naval operations, or that China could shut down wind farms to destabilise the grid via remote software updates or embedded chips. European turbine-makers already use Chinese parts such as blade bearings and gearboxes.
Get in touch with your feelings of hostility against the dying light.