The global wind energy foundation market is projected to grow at a significant level, during the forecast period, on account of increasing demand for clean energy resources and rising number of installations in the wind power sector. Wind energy is expected to be the largest application in terms of value in the global power production during the forecast period (2016 - 2022), due to increasing government reforms and policies focusing on adaptation of renewable energy. Most of the countries are focusing on producing affordable, reliable and secure energy on the face of growing demand for increasing electricity generation and improve development activities, which is expected to support the overall expansion of the wind energy foundation market. Over the past few years, renewable energy has become more cost-competitive as compared to other conventional sources of energy due to the technological innovations in the wind energy foundation market. Additionally, the rapidly growing installation capacities of wind power and the declining prices of wind turbines worldwide are likely to propel the growth of the global wind energy foundation market during the forecast period.
Governments and manufacturers have shifted their focus to renewable energy resources as a result of depleting fossil fuel reserves, growing population and rapid industrialization across the globe. Global warming and climate change and increasing environmental concerns such as the release of greenhouse gas emissions have led to an increasing shift toward non-conventional resources. Several manufacturers have increased their installation capacities to enhance the power generation capabilities. This has led to significant rise in the demand for various wind energy foundation structures, globally.
Based on site location, onshore is expected to be the largest segment in the global wind energy foundation market. The factors driving the market include increasing awareness toward the benefits of renewable energy, easy availability of wind energy sources and significant growth in the number of commercial onshore wind farms in North America.
The foundation for onshore wind energy projects is built on different types of terrains under challenging soil and environmental conditions. The onshore segment has been further categorized into raft, pile, well foundation and others. The raft has been the largest sub-segment in the onshore segment. Raft is expected to grow at the fastest rate in the wind energy foundation market for onshore, during the forecast period.
On the other hand, the offshore segment is forecasted to exhibit faster growth rate, over the forecast period, due to rising installations in offshore areas and technological advancements that have helped in building offshore facilities. Offshore category has been further segmented into mono-pile, jacket–pile, gravity, suction, and tripod. Out of these, jacket-pile sub-segment is expected to witness the fastest growth, during the forecast period. Jacket-piles are mostly deployed in deep water technology due to their light weight and easy installation. Additionally, in the mono-pile sub-segment, Mono-piles are used in seabed structures for sustainable energy production in Europe that provides scope for identifying new avenues for mono-pile foundations in Europe.
Geographically, Asia-Pacific was the largest contributor to the global wind energy foundation market, in terms of value, in 2015, due to rising demand for clean energy in emerging economies such as China and India and expansion of energy sector in these countries. Europe was the second largest market in value terms in the global wind energy foundation market in 2015 driven by increasing government initiatives focused on providing electricity through wind power.
Major players operating in the global wind energy foundation market are Suzlon Energy Limited, Ramboll Group, OWEC Tower AS, Offshore Wind Power Systems of Texas LLC, Blue H Engineering, SWAY AS, MT Hojgaard and Statoil.
