Onshore wind turbines - price per MW (Millions Euro)

The easy answer to this question is “Today it costs less then yesterday. And probably tomorrow it will cost less than today”.

Today (April 2019) the average price is around 700.000€ per MW – that is, expect to pay around 3 ML€ for a 4 MW wind turbine. That’s a huge reduction when you consider that some years ago the easy to remember formula was 1MW = 1ML€

If you are working in the wind industry you are probably aware of the huge pressure on wind turbine prices, driven by several factors and resulting in turbines cheaper than ever.

It is interesting to observe that, in the current market condition where wind turbines are very cheap, the majority of the main wind turbine manufacturers are reporting very solid order intake figures. However, net profit is still elusive and EBIT margin are very low.

For instance, Vestas reported 9.5% for 2018 while Siemens/Gamesa 7.6% (pre PPA and I&R costs) for the same period, with a guiding range for 2019 between 7% and 8.5%.

It looks like manufacturers are having more luck in the maintenance side of the business: margins there are significantly better.

One of the consequences of this situation is that several players are leaving the market (Senvion declared bankruptcy some weeks ago) and the consolidation of the sector continue: there are rumours about a possible purchase of Suzlon (heavily indebted) by Vestas, while Enercon absorbed the Dutch manufacturer Lagerwey some time ago.

In case you are wondering about the origin of the figures in this post I’ve taken the numbers for this post from the official annual statements of Siemens/Gamesa and Vestas and not from my friends working there 😉