China Threatens Europe’s Wind Mills 

The world’s largest wind turbines rise off the shore of China’s Fujian Province in the Taiwan Strait. Designed to withstand tropical storms, a giant Chinese-made turbine — with a rotor diameter of 252 meters — broke a world record last year by producing enough energy to power around 170,000 homes.  

China is currently the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturer, accounting for 60% of global production capacity. Europe and the US, which long dominated the wind market, stand at 19% and 9%, respectively. China dominates the wind supply chain, providing between 70–80% of the core components and refines almost 100% of the critical minerals required to build turbines. 

The policy implications are enormous. The West cannot meet its ambitious climate targets without cheap renewable energy. Forgoing Chinese green technology risks slowing the green transition and raising prices for consumers. Europe is already dependent on imported Chinese solar panels.  In response, the West is weighing whether to raise tariffs and offer public subsidies to their green tech industries. But often, Washington and Brussels risk driving ahead at different speeds. 

Most attention centers on electric vehicles. China has raced out to a lead in producing low-cost, high-performing EVs. The US has slapped 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs. Europe has hesitated, held back by German fears of Chinese retaliation. Brussels ended up this month imposing tariffs on Chinese EVs — but only up to 45%.  

Similar questions could soon arise in other key green tech. China was long known as the world’s “dirty man” of electricity generation. In 2023, China built 70GW (gigawatts) of coal-fired new capacity: amounting to 95% of the worldwide total. In 2024, the country cut new coal plant permits by 83%, allowing only 9GW of new coal generation.  

Chinese wind dominance has been achieved in record time. “In 1989, there were only three electricity-producing wind turbines in the whole of China,” British wind energy expert Andrew Garrad remarks. Since then, pioneering companies such as Goldwind, founded in 1998, have tapped into Western expertise — and soon surpassed it.  

China’s strategy is to build short-term energy security with coal while exporting its overcapacity of green tech, including EVs, lithium-ion batteries, solar panels, and wind turbines. Chinese manufacturers offer lower prices and attractive deferred payments, enabled by massive state subsidies by the Chinese Communist Party.  

Europe prides itself on its strong wind industry, which employs 300,000 and accounts for more than one-third (37.5%) of EU renewable electricity. Demark’s Vestas, Germany’s Enercon and Nordex, and Spanish-German Siemens Gamesa almost invented the modern wind industry and the EU aims to increase wind energy capacity from 220 GW in 2024 to 425 GW by 2030 and 1,300 GW by 2050.  

But China is challenging Europe’s leading position. Out of the world’s 10 largest wind turbine manufacturers, four have their headquarters in the EU. Another four are in China.  From 2020 to 2022, Europe’s wind market share fell from 42% to 35%. Chinese turbine prices are at least 20% lower than European and US manufacturers. 

Although European companies still produce most of the continent’s wind turbines, they are losing power. Goldwind and other Chinese companies are installing 2.6 (GW) of wind turbines across Europe. Germany is choosing Chinese-made turbines, and Italy is manufacturing them. The UK, which has moved fast to ban coal-based generation, could be the next target. 

“Chinese wind turbine manufacturers are offering much lower prices than European manufacturers and incredibly generous financing terms with up to three years deferred payment,” says Giles Dickson, CEO of WindEurope, an industry lobby group. “You can’t do that without an unfair public subsidy.” 

Policymakers are waking up to the challenge. In October 2023, the Commission launched a new Wind Power Package to strengthen the European wind industry and level the playing field. A key goal is speeding up the permitting process for new wind projects. 

Underdeveloped grids pose another major bottleneck. Investments of €584 billion are needed by 2030 to upgrade Europe’s grids, according to the EU Commission’s 2023 Action Plan. More than 500 GW of wind capacity across Europe is waiting for approval of grid connection applications, a process that now takes up to nine years, according to WindEurope. 

In April 2024, the European Commission opened probes into whether Chinese wind turbines disrupt fair competition in five EU countries. Subsidized Chinese wind turbines “are not only dangerous for our competitiveness,” said Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager.  They also jeopardize “our economic security.”  

Instead of trying to out-subsidize China – an impossible goal – Europe and the US should support new-generation wind turbine technologies. European and American start-ups need to be able to scale up to compete with Chinese state-backed corporations. Companies such as Norway’s Kyoto and Britain’s Caldera* are leading the world in heat storage, the ability to store energy produced by wind and solar, to be used when the breeze falters and sunshine vanishes. The West cannot out-subsidize China. It can only stay ahead by innovating. 

*Declaration of interest: The author is an investor in Caldera  

Christopher Cytera is a Non-resident senior fellow with the Digital Innovation Initiative at the Center for European Policy Analysis and a technology business executive with over 30 years of experience in semiconductors, electronics, communications, video, and imaging. 

Oona Lagercrantz is an intern with CEPA’s Digital Innovation Initiative. 

Bandwidth is CEPA’s online journal dedicated to advancing transatlantic cooperation on tech policy. All opinions are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the position or views of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis.