Brandolini’s Law states that “the amount of energy needed to refute a lie is an order of magnitude larger than to produce it.” In simple terms, misinformation is easy to create but far harder to correct. A misleading claim can be delivered in a few seconds, while debunking it requires evidence, context, and careful explanation.
This dynamic plays out constantly in political discourse, particularly when complex industries are reduced to simple talking points. Renewable energy, and wind power in particular, has increasingly become one of those targets.
In recent speeches, Donald Trump has criticized renewable energy and made several striking claims about China’s role in the wind industry. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in January 2026, he stated that China “makes almost all of the windmills, and yet I haven’t been able to find any wind farms in China,” implying that the country manufactures turbines mainly to export them rather than use them domestically.
He made a similar claim at an event in early January 2026 that later appeared in the U.S. Congressional Record, saying: “All you have to do is say to China, how many windmill areas do you have in China? So far, they are not able to find any… They make them and sell them to suckers like Europe and suckers like the United States.”
These are bold statements. They are also easy to repeat. But do they stand up to even basic scrutiny? The short answer is no.
In fact, as we will show in this article, China is both the world’s largest manufacturer of wind turbine generators and it is also the single largest user of them. The country operates the world’s largest fleet of wind turbines and has installed more wind power capacity than any other nation by a wide margin. Far from lacking wind farms, China has built hundreds of gigawatts of wind generation across vast onshore regions and rapidly expanding offshore projects.
Understanding why the claim falls apart requires looking at three things: how the wind industry has evolved, who actually manufactures modern turbines, and where those turbines are being installed. Once those pieces are examined, the reality becomes clear: the global wind industry is growing rapidly, China sits at its center, and the narrative that it builds turbines only for export simply doesn’t match the facts.
How Wind Turbines Became Powerhouses
If you look only at the number of individual wind turbine generators manufactured each year, it can appear that global interest in wind power is slowing, or even declining. In some years the number of turbines installed globally has plateaued or fluctuated, which can create the impression that the industry’s growth has stalled. But this interpretation is misleading.
One of the most interesting things about the wind industry is that the number of turbines being installed each year hasn’t grown nearly as fast as the amount of electricity they produce. That’s because wind turbines themselves have been getting dramatically larger and more powerful.
Globally, the world now installs roughly 20,000–30,000 wind turbines per year, with the vast majority of these being for deployment onshore. In 2024 alone, about 117 gigawatts (GW) of new wind capacity were installed worldwide, which represented roughly 23,000 new turbines.
But this figure becomes far more interesting when you look at how turbine size has changed over time.
From Revolution to Evolution
In the early days of modern wind power, turbines were relatively small. A typical turbine installed in the 1990s generated less than 1 megawatt (MW) of electricity, with rotor diameters around 40–50 meters and tower heights below 60 meters. These early machines were important proof-of-concept technologies, but they captured only a fraction of the wind energy available at higher elevations.
As the industry expanded from proof-of-concept to commercial viability, advances in aerodynamic blade design, lightweight composite materials, and computer-aided modeling enabled engineers to build longer, more efficient blades capable of capturing more wind energy. By the early 2000s, these technological and manufacturing improvements had grown turbines to about 1–1.5 MW.
At the same time, improved power electronics and control systems allowed turbines to operate more efficiently across a wider range of wind speeds. Manufacturing also matured rapidly as global supply chains expanded, factories produced blades and towers at larger scales, and installation techniques improved. Together, these technological and industrial advances enabled turbines to steadily grow in size and capacity, laying the foundation for the multi-megawatt machines that now dominate modern wind farms.
Today, a typical onshore turbine is closer to 5–6 MW, with rotor diameters stretching 150–200 meters across and hub heights often exceeding 100 meters. In practical terms, this means that a single modern turbine can generate three to five times as much electricity as one installed just 15–20 years ago.
To understand the growth in wind energy, it helps to see how turbine sizes have exploded over the past three decades.
| Period | Typical turbine capacity |
| 1990s | ~500 kW |
| Early 2000s | ~1–1.5 MW |
| 2010 | ~2 MW |
| Late 2010s | ~2.5–3 MW |
| 2024 | ~4–6 MW |
Fewer Turbines, More Power
Because turbines have grown so much in size, the number of turbines required to add new electricity capacity has actually stabilized.
For example:
| Year | Capacity added | Average turbine size | Approx. turbines installed |
| 2005 | 11 GW | ~1 MW | ~11,000 |
| 2015 | 63 GW | ~2.5 MW | ~25,000 |
| 2024 | 117 GW | ~5+ MW | ~23,000 |
Even though the amount of wind power installed annually has more than doubled since 2015, the number of turbines installed each year has remained roughly similar.
The global fleet
Today, researchers estimate there are around 375,000–400,000 wind turbines operating worldwide, most of them on land. Yet the total electricity capacity from wind has grown far faster than the number of machines themselves.
That’s the quiet story of the wind industry over the past two decades: larger rotors capture more energy from the wind, taller towers reach stronger and steadier winds, and improved materials and controls allow each turbine to produce far more electricity than its predecessors.
Global Turbine Makers: Who’s Leading
When it comes to wind power, not all turbines are created equal, and not all manufacturers are equal either. The global market is dominated by a handful of companies, with Chinese firms now holding a commanding lead in overall installations, particularly driven by massive domestic demand in China.
The largest wind turbine manufacturers today are concentrated primarily in China, with strong European and U.S. players remaining influential, especially in offshore wind and international markets outside China.
Top Global Players
- Goldwind (Beijing, China) – The world’s leading turbine supplier for multiple years running, Goldwind installed approximately 29.3 GW in 2025, maintaining its top global position. As China’s largest manufacturer, it dominates onshore deployments both domestically and increasingly abroad.
- Envision Energy (Shanghai, China) – Ranked second globally, with around 20.9 GW installed in 2025. Envision stands out for its significant international presence, with nearly a quarter of its installations outside mainland China, reflecting strong export and project development growth.
- Mingyang Smart Energy (Zhongshan, China) – A major force in both onshore and offshore, placing third or fourth globally depending on the source (around 18.9 GW in 2025). Mingyang excels in large-scale projects and innovative turbine designs.
- Windey Energy Technology (China) – Ranked in the top four, with about 18.4 GW installed in 2025. It contributes heavily to China’s onshore boom and is expanding its footprint.
- Sany Renewable Energy (China) and Dongfang Electric (China) – Both rounded out the top six with roughly 13.5 GW each in 2025, underscoring the dominance of Chinese OEMs in the global rankings for the first time.
- Vestas (Aarhus, Denmark) – One of the most established and globally diversified players, Vestas slipped to seventh globally in 2025 (around 10.6 GW) but remains the largest supplier outside China and leads in market diversity, serving numerous countries with advanced onshore and offshore turbines.
- Siemens Gamesa (Zamudio, Spain / Siemens Energy) – A European powerhouse, particularly strong in offshore wind, where it retained the top position globally for the second year in 2025. It continues to lead innovations in large-scale offshore projects.
- GE Vernova (Boston / Paris area, USA & France) – General Electric’s renewable energy division, focused on large onshore turbines in the U.S. and select international markets, with a solid presence in North America.
Other notable manufacturers include Nordex (Germany), Suzlon (India), CRRC (China), and Shanghai Electric (China), each playing key roles in regional or specialized markets.
Why Manufacturer Rankings Shape the Industry
The location and focus of these companies shape technology trends, supply chains, and deployment patterns. Chinese manufacturers now hold the top six global spots by installations (and eight of the top ten), largely due to China’s record domestic additions. Meanwhile, European firms like Vestas and Siemens Gamesa lead in offshore innovation and non-Chinese markets. GE Vernova remains a major contributor in North America. Understanding who makes the turbines, and where they are deployed, provides essential context for global wind energy trends and explains the rapid scaling of the world’s largest fleets, led overwhelmingly by China.
China’s Wind Industry: Myth vs. Reality
Understanding who makes the turbines is just one piece of the puzzle. The next question: where are all these turbines actually deployed? Examining the global distribution of installed wind capacity gives a clearer picture of how production translates into electricity generation, and highlights which countries are leading the charge.
Leading countries by total installed wind capacity
- China is by far the global leader, with approximately 640 GW of installed wind capacity. This represents roughly 43–47% of the worldwide total and is more than four times the capacity of the next-largest country. China’s fleet includes vast onshore wind bases (especially in northern and western regions) and rapidly growing offshore projects along the coast.
- United States ranks second, with roughly 152–155 GW installed. The U.S. maintains a strong onshore focus, particularly in the Midwest and Texas, with emerging offshore development on the East Coast.
- Germany holds third place in Europe and globally, with around 70–73 GW. It leads in European wind deployment, with a mix of onshore and growing offshore capacity.
- India follows closely, with approximately 45–50 GW (and record additions of ~6.3 GW in 2025 alone), driven by strong policy support and domestic manufacturing growth.
- Brazil, Spain, United Kingdom, France, Canada, and Sweden round out the top 10, each with significant fleets ranging from ~17–32 GW. Brazil has seen rapid recent growth in onshore wind, while the UK and others lead in offshore.
Together, these top markets account for the vast majority of global wind capacity. More than 130 countries now have some wind energy installed, but the largest shares remain concentrated in a handful of leaders with ambitious programs.
So, while soundbites may suggest China is building turbines for export alone, the data tells a different story: China is powering its own future and the world’s renewable transition.
From Domestic Leader to Global Powerhouse
While China is clearly the world’s leading manufacturer of wind turbines, it is also the single largest deployer and user of wind power. Far from producing turbines solely for export, China has constructed one of the most extensive domestic wind infrastructures on the planet, with ambitious targets set to drive even greater scale in the coming decades.
China’s Internal Wind Boom
China’s wind energy sector has expanded at an extraordinary pace over the past two decades. As of the end of 2025, the country’s total installed wind power capacity reached approximately 640 GW, up 22.9% from the previous year.
Wind power now plays a major role in China’s electricity mix, contributing around 9–10% of national generation in recent years, with combined wind and solar often exceeding 25% in peak months (e.g., 26% in April 2025, a record high). Analysts project wind’s share to continue rising as part of the broader push toward non-fossil fuels dominating the grid.
Deployment spans vast onshore regions, particularly in northern and western provinces with excellent wind resources, as well as accelerating offshore development along the eastern and southern coasts. Large-scale projects, including world-leading wind bases like those in Gansu, demonstrate the scale and integration of wind into China’s energy system.
Chinese Turbines Go Global
Chinese wind equipment increasingly reaches international markets. In 2025, exports of wind turbines hit a record high, rising about 50% year-on-year to roughly 8 GW, with cumulative exports surpassing 28 GW, a thirteenfold increase from a decade earlier. Leading manufacturers have secured major contracts in regions like Southeast Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and beyond.
Chinese firms are evolving beyond simple exports: many are establishing localized manufacturing, project development, service networks, and financing in over 20 countries. This shift helps navigate trade barriers, build long-term partnerships, and expand global influence in the renewable sector.
China’s Renewable Ambitions and Carbon Goals
Wind power remains a cornerstone of China’s “dual carbon” goals of peaking emissions before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. These ambitions are embedded in national development plans, including the forthcoming 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030).
The Beijing Declaration on Wind Energy 2.0 (released in October 2025 and signed by over 1,000 companies) sets bold targets of reaching at least 120 GW of new wind capacity annually from 2026 to 2030, including no less than 15 GW of offshore wind each year. This would bring cumulative installed wind capacity to around 1.3 TW (1,300 GW) by 2030, at least 2 TW (2,000 GW) by 2035, and up to 5 TW by 2060, in alignment with global 1.5°C pathways and positioning wind as a primary pillar of the energy transition.
Scaling Up: Opportunities and Obstacles
China is poised to sustain rapid scaling, with expectations of faster offshore deployment (including deeper waters and higher-capacity turbines), greater integration with energy storage, smart grids, and emerging applications like green hydrogen production.
Key challenges include improving grid infrastructure to reduce curtailment (where wind generation is limited by transmission constraints), enhancing market mechanisms for full utilization, and balancing rapid growth with supply chain resilience. Despite these hurdles, China’s wind sector continues to demonstrate unmatched momentum in both domestic deployment and global leadership.
In summary, China’s wind power story is one of massive internal investment and utilization, not just export-driven production, which directly counters the narratives that overlook its world-leading domestic fleet and strategic role in the clean energy future.
Energy Security in a Volatile World
Recent turmoil in the Middle East, particularly the war involving Iran and the disruption of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, has cast a stark spotlight on the vulnerabilities of the global fossil fuel-based energy system. The strait is one of the world’s most crucial energy chokepoints, historically carrying about 20 million barrels per day (~20% of daily global consumption) of crude oil, petroleum products, and other liquids, along with approximately 20% of global liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade, primarily from Persian Gulf exporters.
A prolonged closure or significant disruption there could sharply reduce global fossil fuel flows and send prices surging, reinforcing fears about energy security and the risks of heavy dependence on imported hydrocarbons.
In contrast, China’s vigorous push toward renewable energy and electrification offers a very different model of energy risk management. While China still imports substantial quantities of oil and gas, and estimates suggest that up to 50 % of its crude oil imports pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the country has built robust stockpiles and diversified supply routes to buffer short‑term disruptions.
But long‑term geopolitical stability does not come only from storage tanks and pipelines. Renewables like wind and solar are fuel‑agnostic by design, as they don’t rely on imported oil or gas, or on sea lanes that can be disrupted by conflict. That means a grid powered increasingly by wind and solar is less exposed to global flashpoints such as the current tensions in the Middle East. This dynamic is becoming clearer across Asia and Europe, where policymakers and energy analysts alike have pointed to the ongoing conflict as a reminder that traditional fossil fuel infrastructure remains vulnerable to geopolitical shocks. It has also brought into clear focus the fact that accelerating investments in renewables can function as a form of strategic insulation.
For China, the geopolitics of energy are also about global leadership and influence in emerging technologies. By scaling up domestic wind and solar deployment while continuing to drive exports of renewable equipment, China is both cutting its own exposure to oil price volatility and shaping the landscape of energy supplies for other countries as well. As European nations grapple with potential disruptions to gas and oil supplies from the Middle East, Chinese wind manufacturers have become sources of both equipment and capacity, stepping into roles that fossil fuel suppliers once dominated.
In this context, the unfolding geopolitical pressures underscore why many nations are seeking to diversify their energy systems away from just oil and gas, and toward electricity generated from renewable sources that are less tied to volatile global markets. For China, this has the dual effect of enhancing domestic energy resilience while positioning it as an influential player in the global transition away from fossil fuels.
Bold Claims vs. Hard Facts
It takes seconds to make a bold claim, and zero effort to repeat it. That’s why statements like China “selling wind turbines to suckers” spread so easily. But a closer look at the data tells a very different story.
China doesn’t just manufacture turbines for export. It operates the world’s largest wind power fleet, with hundreds of thousands of turbines generating electricity across the country. Wind energy is no longer an experimental add-on; it’s a central pillar of China’s energy mix, contributing around 9–10% of national generation and often exceeding 25% combined with solar during peak months.
Meanwhile, Chinese firms are also exporting turbines, but these exports complement, not define, their domestic strategy. Global wind capacity growth shows that China is powering its own future while helping drive the world’s renewable transition.
The broader picture is clear: while some cling to the fossil-fuel past, the rest of the world is accelerating toward electrification and renewables. Wind and solar are reshaping energy systems, enhancing resilience, and even shifting geopolitical dynamics.
So next time someone claims China is building turbines only for export, the numbers speak for themselves. China is not just selling turbines; it’s leading the global energy transformation.
