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Winds of change: China is a massive exporter – and user – of turbines
ROB Magazine

Winds of change

Over 15 per cent of China’s electric power generation comes from wind, and it added 76 gigawatts of wind energy in 2024 alone

Photography by George Steinmetz
The Globe and Mail
Workers prepare a mould for a 107-meter-long wind turbine blade at the SANY factory in Shaoshan, Hunan, China. The blades are made from fiberglass and epoxy resin, which are folded together to form the rough blade before it is trimmed, smoothed, and painted. This factory produces 650 three-blade sets each year.
Workers prepare a mould for a 107-meter-long wind turbine blade at the SANY factory in Shaoshan, Hunan, China. The blades are made from fiberglass and epoxy resin, which are folded together to form the rough blade before it is trimmed, smoothed, and painted. This factory produces 650 three-blade sets each year.
Workers prepare a mould for a 107-meter-long wind turbine blade at the SANY factory in Shaoshan, Hunan, China. The blades are made from fiberglass and epoxy resin, which are folded together to form the rough blade before it is trimmed, smoothed, and painted. This factory produces 650 three-blade sets each year.
Workers prepare a mould for a 107-meter-long wind turbine blade at the SANY factory in Shaoshan, Hunan, China. The blades are made from fiberglass and epoxy resin, which are folded together to form the rough blade before it is trimmed, smoothed, and painted. This factory produces 650 three-blade sets each year.

Among the many falsehoods buried in Donald Trump’s World Economic Forum speech, this was was a doozy: “China makes almost all of the windmills, and yet I haven’t been able to find any wind farms in China,” he rambled. “They make them. They sell them for a fortune. They sell them to the stupid people that buy them, but they don’t use them themselves.”

He’s right that China is a massive exporter of wind turbines: 10 of the top 15 suppliers are Chinese (as of 2024), according to the Global Wind Energy Council. But some 94% of installed capacity was still in its home market.

According to America’s own Energy Information Administration, 16% of China’s electric power generation comes from wind, and it added 76 gigawatts of wind energy in 2024 alone. That’s roughly enough to power 66.5 million U.S. households for a year.

Workers open the mould to reveal a 107-meter-long wind turbine blade at the SANY factory in Shaosahn. SANY, a leading Chinese heavy equipment company, will also install the blades at their final destination.
Workers install the wind turbine blades in the hills near Martianzhen, Hunan, China. Virtually all of their blades have been installed in China, which accounts for two-thirds of the global wind power capacity. But international orders are starting to pick up with sales to India, Kazakhstan, and Ethiopia.
The blades are placed in a specialized cradle to hoist them in a horizontal position to the top of the tower, where they are bolted onto the turbine. SANY will manage this 18-tower, 88-megawatt wind farm for a few years before selling it.

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