The new round of national independent contribution targets is clear, aiming to achieve a total installed capacity of 3.6 billion kilowatts of wind and solar power by 2035; The Beijing Declaration 2.0 on Wind Energy provides a clearer roadmap, proposing that the annual average new installed capacity of wind power during the 15th Five Year Plan period should not be less than 120 million kilowatts. These two sets of inspiring data clearly outline the vast space for the domestic development of wind power in China, and also demonstrate China's firm commitment to global green development. However, when the industry focuses on these two major domestic goals and assesses the development trend of the industry, many analyses overlook a key point: the value of Chinese wind power has already surpassed the boundaries of domestic installed capacity and has a more profound influence in the global industrial landscape.

It cannot be denied that the domestic market is the fundamental foundation for the development of China's wind power industry, and stable domestic demand provides solid support for industrial technology iteration and capacity accumulation. But after years of development, China's wind power industry has already broken through the single positioning of "serving the domestic market" and formed a development pattern of "domestic and international dual circulation" - the survival and development of a large number of wind power enterprises have become highly dependent on the international market. If limited to the domestic market, Chinese wind power companies will face enormous profit pressure and find it difficult to achieve breakthroughs in high-quality development.

The price dilemma in the domestic wind turbine market is one of the core driving forces for enterprises to "go global". In the second half of 2019, the price gap between onshore wind turbines in China and Europe was still small, at 4990 yuan/kW and 5700 yuan/kW respectively (historically, the unit price of wind turbines in China has always been lower than that in Europe); But thereafter, the two trends diverged, with Chinese wind turbine prices continuing to decline and dropping to 1995 yuan/kW by 2025, while European wind turbine prices fluctuated and rose, reaching 7770 yuan/kW during the same period. The huge price gap directly eroded the profit margins of Chinese wind turbine manufacturers.

The profit data intuitively reflects this pressure: in 2023 and 2024, the average profit margin of the five major listed wind turbine manufacturers in China will remain at around -4%, and even if there is a slight rebound in 2025, the average profit margin will only be around 0%. It is worth noting that although European manufacturers hold wind turbine prices 2-3 times higher than those in China, their profit performance is even more dismal. In 2024, the average profit margins of Vestas, Siemens Gamesa, and Ende, three European giants, were below 0%, mainly due to the continued losses of Siemens Gamesa, which only showed signs of narrowing in its wind power business losses in the 2026 fiscal quarter.

On one hand, there is a low profit margin in the domestic market, and on the other hand, there is a high selling price in the international market and the relative weakness of competitors. It has become an inevitable choice for Chinese wind turbine manufacturers to actively explore overseas markets. Since the profit margin of domestic manufacturers hit bottom in 2022, the pace of "going global" has continued to accelerate, with significant results. The total export order volume of Chinese brand wind turbines has achieved a leapfrog growth: it was only 1.3GW in 2021, jumped to 4.5GW in 2022, reached 6.8GW in 2023, exceeded 8GW in 2024, reached 5.8GW in the first half of 2025, and is expected to exceed 11.5GW for the whole year - the order scale is expected to grow nearly tenfold in the next five years. From the perspective of actual exports, by 2025, China's newly added export capacity of wind turbines will reach 7.734 million kilowatts, a year-on-year increase of 48.9%, reaching a historical high. The export destinations will expand to 60 countries on six continents, with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Laos becoming the top three export markets that year.

More importantly, the export of complete machines is only the tip of the iceberg for China's wind power "going global". Due to the high global trade barriers for wind turbines, the export scale of Chinese wind power components has become even larger and has become the core support of the global supply chain. Data shows that China accounts for over 70% of the global production of key components for wind turbines, such as gearboxes, blades, and castings. The manufacturing capacity of complete machines accounts for 60% of the global production capacity, blades account for 75%, and bearings account for 50%. It can be said that the normal operation of the global wind power industry cannot be separated from the support of China's supply chain. As industry experts have pointed out, without the Chinese supply chain, the global cost of renewable energy would have slowed down by at least half, and many developing countries' energy transition plans may have been delayed for more than 10 years.

In addition to product exports, Chinese wind power companies are accelerating their overseas production capacity layout, upgrading from "product going global" to "production capacity going global" and "service going global". Currently, Farview and Sany are expanding their production capacity in India and Kazakhstan; Sinoma Technology is rooted in Uzbekistan and Brazil; Ailang Wind Power settles in Morocco; Goldwind Technology has established manufacturing bases in Brazil, Germany, and Spain; Mingyang Intelligent has entered Italy and the UK, and has reached a strategic partnership with British energy technology giant Octopus Energy; CRRC is expanding its related businesses in Vietnam. At the same time, Shantou, as an important gateway for China's wind power to go global, has built the world's first offshore wind power equipment manufacturing industrial park with a full industry chain. After completion, it will become a gateway for exporting wind power equipment and services to the world.

The strategic value of overseas markets has been reflected in the order structure of leading enterprises. In the first half of 2025, the global medium scale of Far East Energy will reach 18548MW, of which 5717.5MW will be awarded in overseas markets, accounting for as much as 30.8%; By 2025, Goldwind Technology's wind turbine export capacity will reach 3.862 million kilowatts, with a cumulative export capacity of over 13.65 million kilowatts. Its business covers 48 countries across six continents. By the end of 2025, a total of 7 domestic wind turbine manufacturers have won over 44GW of overseas orders, a year-on-year increase of 59.6%. The overseas layout of leading enterprises has entered a period of large-scale harvest.

As more and more Chinese wind power companies' overseas orders exceed 30%, it means that Chinese wind power not only has a firm foothold in the international market, but also marks the full recognition of Chinese wind turbines and the entire industry chain in the global market. The core of the global wind power industry is gradually shifting from Europe to China. From the annual average new installed capacity target of 120 million kilowatts domestically to a comprehensive breakthrough in the global market; From exporting a single product to expanding the entire industry chain and laying out production capacity, the value of China's wind power has long surpassed the quantitative indicators of installed capacity.

Nowadays, China's wind power has achieved a strategic transformation from "scale leading" to "value leading", which not only supports the important task of domestic energy structure transformation, but also provides "Chinese solutions" and "Chinese support" for global energy transformation. In the future, with the continuous deepening of overseas markets and breakthroughs in technological innovation, the value of Chinese wind power will be more fully demonstrated in the wave of global green development. (This article is from the official website www.seetao.com of Jian Dao. Reproduction without permission is prohibited, otherwise it will be prosecuted. Please indicate Jian Dao website+original link when reprinting.) Jian Dao website wind power column editor/Yin Jiahui