China, the world’s biggest market for wind power, is bracing for a sharp slowdown in wind turbine installations this year, a move that will spark a “bloodbath” among wind turbine producers, industry executives say.
The slowdown has already claimed its first victim, as Germany’s Repower told the Financial Times that it planned to end wind turbine production in China by selling their majority stake in a turbine factory in Inner Mongolia.
“We’re not going to keep doing business in China when we have to take heavy losses just to install turbines,” Wolfgang Jussen, Repower’s China chief executive, said, referring to the way that turbine prices have plummeted in recent years as China’s turbine-making capacity has outstripped demand. Repower will still source some turbine components in China.