With GE Vernova temporarily stepping back from new offshore turbine orders, Europe’s offshore wind market is increasingly dominated by Siemens Gamesa and Vestas. The growing concentration is reshaping pricing power, supply chains and the future pace of Europe’s energy transition.
Europe’s offshore wind turbines market is narrowing fast
Siemens Gamesa and Vestas have become the dominant suppliers of offshore wind turbines in Europe. Their leadership reflects years of technological expertise and industrial scale, but it also raises growing concerns about competition, pricing power and supply security within the European energy transition.
Following the temporary withdrawal of GE Vernova from new offshore turbine orders due to technical and operational issues, the European market has effectively consolidated into a duopoly.
The question now is no longer whether these companies dominate the sector, but what consequences this concentration could have for Europe’s offshore ambitions after 2030.
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From crisis to recovery for Europe’s wind industry
To understand how Europe reached this point, it is necessary to look back at 2023, when the continent’s wind industry entered one of its deepest crises.
European turbine manufacturers were squeezed by multiple pressures at once:
- soaring steel and raw material costs;
- supply chain bottlenecks;
- poorly designed renewable energy auctions;
- aggressive competition from Chinese OEMs.
At the time, all five of Europe’s major wind turbine manufacturers were operating at a loss.
The situation became severe enough to force intervention from the European Commission, which introduced targeted measures aimed at protecting Europe’s wind manufacturing base while supporting the bloc’s goal of reaching 500 GW of wind capacity by 2030.
Brussels promoted:
- monitoring against unfair trade practices;
- greater use of strategic procurement mechanisms;
- new auction criteria rewarding higher-value European equipment.
At the same time, Europe’s wind manufacturers radically adjusted their business strategy.
Although European OEMs lost their historic dominance in global turbine sales volumes, they shifted toward:
- fewer but more strategic markets;
- higher technological quality;
- proven turbine platforms;
- predictive maintenance systems to improve reliability and asset performance.
Most importantly, they stopped competing aggressively on price alone.
Offshore wind turbines became more profitable
That strategic shift has significantly improved profitability across the sector over the past year, particularly in Europe’s offshore wind segment, where supply has become increasingly concentrated.
According to comments made by Vestas executives to Reuters, 2026 marked a major turning point.
“Last year, in the first quarter, we had not yet installed a single one of our new offshore turbines,” said Jakob Wegge Larsen, Chief Financial Officer at Vestas. “We are now installing and producing offshore turbines at a significantly higher level than last year.”
Across both onshore and offshore operations, the Danish company generated €3.97 billion in revenue during the first quarter of 2026, up 14.4% year over year.
Quarterly wind turbine orders reached 4,504 MW, a 44% increase compared with the first quarter of 2025.
“The value of the wind turbine order backlog stood at €36.3 billion as of March 31, 2026,” the company stated.
Why offshore wind turbine prices are rising
In reality, Siemens Gamesa, Vestas and GE Vernova have long dominated offshore wind turbine supply across Western markets.
However, GE Vernova’s pause in offshore orders further accelerated market concentration, while logistics constraints and manufacturing bottlenecks continue pushing prices higher.
According to Rystad Energy, offshore turbine prices have increased by 40-45% since 2020, significantly outpacing the rise in production costs, estimated at roughly 20-25%.
The steepest increases involve the most technologically complex components:
- nacelles;
- blades.
The key transformation is not simply inflation itself, but how costs are now distributed across the offshore wind value chain.
Bigger offshore wind turbines mean bigger costs
The rapid evolution of offshore wind turbine sizes is also driving higher costs.
Over the past few years, the industry has shifted from 9-10 MW machines to massive 14-15 MW offshore turbines, enabled by economies of scale, standardization and technological maturity.
One of the clearest examples is the SG 15-236 DD, developed by Siemens Gamesa through its offshore Direct Drive platform.
“Rather than rapidly launching new turbines,” explained Steffen Frydendal Poulsen, Senior Vice President for Wind Power Technology at Siemens Gamesa, “we focus on controlled releases, continuous improvements based on field performance and customer needs.”
The company says its manufacturing facilities now operate as a fully integrated global production system using shared tools, processes and standards.
Still, larger turbines inevitably mean:
- larger components;
- more complex logistics;
- higher manufacturing costs.
Europe may not reach offshore wind targets without new capacity
According to Sander Baksjoberget, Senior Analyst for Offshore Wind Research at Rystad Energy, Europe’s offshore ambitions remain politically strong, but the market itself is becoming structurally constrained.
“High demand, limited supplier diversity and increasing turbine complexity are giving OEMs real pricing power and greater selectivity over which projects move forward,” the analyst noted.
That growing imbalance between supply and demand is now becoming one of the sector’s most critical risks.
Without a major expansion of Europe’s manufacturing capacity, or a redesign of auction systems to better address supply constraints, the continent may struggle to achieve its post-2030 offshore wind goals at the speed and cost required for the energy transition.
