Global wind industry in good mood – clear improvement in Germany
2020 is a crisis year, yet the wind industry comes across as rather stable, compared to many other sectors: The mood in the global wind industry is increasingly seen in a positive light. The future of offshore wind energy in particular has received very optimistic assessments, with best-ever results for Europe, and in particular, Asia. Following some extremely negative values in autumn 2019, the mood in the German wind industry is slowly recovering, as well. While the mood about the onshore wind segment continues to be restrained despite a marked improvement, the future prospects for the offshore wind industry in particular are now being seen as positive. Furthermore, the coronavirus pandemic doesn’t seem to have a major impact on the optimistic expectations for the coming years: a majority of respondents either believe that the pandemic has no effect on the wind industry at all, or that it actually affects it in a positive manner. Digitalisation and the production of green hydrogen are believed to harbour additional growth potential.
These are some of the results of the new WindEnergy trend:index (WEtix) which has been prepared twice every year since 2018 by WindEnergy Hamburg, the global onshore and offshore wind energy event, jointly with wind:research, the leading market research institute for wind energy. Conducted in autumn 2020, the sixth online survey for the global mood barometer, again enjoyed a high participation rate despite the postponement of WindEnergy Hamburg. More than 1,250 market stakeholders responded. All in all more than 7,500 individuals have taken part in these surveys to date, assessing the prospects of the global onshore and offshore wind energy industry.
Mood in German wind industry continues to improve
In November of last year the WEtix produced some extremely negative results. But now the mood in the German wind industry is slowly recovering. For the second time in sequence, the current situation in the onshore wind market received less pessimistic reviews than earlier, while assessments of the offshore wind market in Germany were positive, if only slightly, for the first time since the spring of 2019. Despite an improving mood, Germany continues to be bottom of the league in a global comparison of market assessments.
Nevertheless, expectations for the long-term development of the German wind industry are now more optimistic: two-year predictions for the onshore market, while still relatively cautious compared with the results for other regions, are now somewhat more positive. What is more, looking at the prospective offshore wind market two years from now, Germany received the best assessment to date since WEtix surveys were first launched in 2018.