The world direct drive wind turbine market (or, gearless) is likely to see sustained growth over the next 10 years as plants focus on improving operational efficiency and minimizing costs of maintenance.

Adoption of the gearless wind turbines will likely be seen the most in the Asian Pacific region, boosted by increasing installation in China. The country is expected to be the most lucrative market for these turbines.

The direct drive wind turbines are preferable compared to geared models, as they suffer less downtime, reduce more noise, and last longer during use. Despite these advantages, a high upfront cost and lack of skilled labor are hampering widespread adoption.

These turbines can be classified on how they operate and what the capacity of the unit is.

When it comes to operating, the turbines can be classified as permanent magnet synchronous generator, or electrically excited synchronous generator. Between the two options, the demand for the permanent magnet type is higher, as a high energy output can be enjoyed from use.

Capacity-wise, the direct drive wind turbines can be separated as small, medium, or large-sized. The small units have a capacity of less than 1MW, medium units, 1MW to 3MW, and large units, over 3MW.

Asia Pacific and North America are the largest markets for these units, when evaluated on both units installed and revenue. Spain and Germany are expected to have more of these turbine units installed and used as well.

Collectively, China, India, the United States, Germany and Spain make up nearly half of global revenue generated of the direc drive turbine market. With this type of growth projected, key industry players like Enercon, Siemens Wind Power A/S, and Godecke Energy can look forward to the future as well.

Ngoc Diep (The Green Optimistic)