Author: Derek Michalski, Chief Editor.
Europe’s wind turbine procurement market is showing measurable signs of acceleration in 2026, with order intake at the two leading Western European manufacturers materially ahead of the same period last year.
Vestas and Nordex recorded a combined 12.8 GW of turbine orders during the first half of 2026, comprising 7.853 GW for Vestas and 4.923 GW for Nordex. On a comparable year-on-year basis, Vestas increased first-half order intake by 52.7%, while Nordex recorded growth of 9.6%.
The divergence is important. It suggests that the recovery in turbine procurement is not translating uniformly across manufacturers and that OEM positioning, geographic exposure, product availability and project mix remain significant determinants of order capture.
The data also needs to be interpreted carefully. Neither figure represents European market share: Vestas operates across a substantially broader geographic and technology portfolio, while Nordex has a much greater concentration in onshore wind. Nevertheless, the two companies provide a useful proxy for procurement conditions in the European onshore market.
Vestas’ order intake is accelerating faster than Nordex’s
Vestas entered 2026 with a substantially larger order base than Nordex and has extended that lead during the first six months of the year.
Vestas booked 4.504 GW in the first quarter and 3.349 GW in the second, taking first-half intake to 7.853 GW. The corresponding figure for the first half of 2025 was 5.144 GW.
Nordex booked 1.869 GW in Q1 and 3.054 GW in Q2, producing H1 order intake of 4.923 GW, compared with 4.492 GW during H1 2025.
| Vestas | Nordex | |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 full-year order intake | 16.3 GW | 10.214 GW |
| H1 2025 | 5.144 GW | 4.492 GW |
| H1 2026 | 7.853 GW | 4.923 GW |
| H1 year-on-year change | +52.7% | +9.6% |
Vestas therefore captured approximately 61% of the combined H1 order volume of the two manufacturers, based on MW ordered. More importantly, its incremental order intake relative to H1 2025 was approximately 2.7 GW, compared with roughly 0.43 GW for Nordex.
This does not establish a change in market share. It does, however, indicate a materially different order trajectory.
Vestas’ increase was also supported by several large individual contracts. Its Q1 intake included a 1.38 GW UK offshore order, while its Q2 order book included a 186 MW order for EDF power solutions in Québec and a 230 MW order from Equinor and Rio Energy in Brazil. The geographic diversity reduces the extent to which Vestas’ H1 performance can be interpreted purely as a European onshore recovery.
Nordex, by contrast, remains more closely linked to the onshore market. Its Q2 2026 order intake of 3.054 GW was driven primarily by Germany, the United States and Türkiye, illustrating the importance of onshore project pipelines to its current order trajectory.
2025 established the foundation for the current procurement cycle
The 2026 increase needs to be viewed against the reset that occurred in 2025.
Vestas recorded 16.3 GW of turbine orders in 2025, while Nordex recorded a record 10.214 GW. The combined order intake of approximately 26.5 GW represented a substantial volume of equipment commitments from two of Europe’s principal Western OEMs.
At the global level, Wood Mackenzie estimates that 215 GW of wind turbine orders were placed in 2025, making it the second-highest annual order volume on record. More significant for European manufacturers, orders outside China reached a record 65 GW, while European onshore turbine orders increased by more than 60%.
This distinction between global and ex-China demand is material.
China remains by far the largest individual wind market and accounts for a substantial proportion of global turbine procurement. The performance of European OEMs is therefore better assessed against non-China demand, where European, North American and selected emerging markets provide the addressable market for Western manufacturers.
Within Europe, Germany has been a key contributor to the improvement. Wood Mackenzie estimates that approximately 21 GW of wind capacity received permits in Germany during 2025, around twice the level recorded in 2024.
Permitting is an upstream indicator, but its significance for turbine manufacturers is straightforward: once projects obtain permits, developers can progress towards auctions, financing, turbine selection and final investment decisions.
The lag between those stages means that the increase in 2025 permitting is now feeding into equipment procurement.
Germany illustrates the conversion from pipeline to procurement
The German market provides some of the clearest evidence of this transition.
Vestas has announced a series of German orders involving developers including Boreas Energie, ENERTRAG, Energiekontor, Alterric, ENP Neue Energien, BVNON and JUWI.
The technology mix also demonstrates the increasing penetration of higher-capacity onshore platforms.
Boreas ordered 175 MW of Vestas’ EnVentus technology in 2025, while ENERTRAG ordered 115 MW of V172-7.2 MW turbines. Energiekontor subsequently ordered 94 MW for its Haberloh & Heidkrug project. Further German orders followed towards the end of 2025.
This procurement pattern continued into 2026.
On 26 August, Vestas announced two orders from JUWI totalling 86.8 MW for the Mehring II and Breuberg projects. Each project will use seven V162-6.2 MW turbines, with 20-year AOM 4000 service agreements.
The delivery schedules are significant: Mehring II is scheduled for turbine deliveries from Q4 2027, while Breuberg deliveries are planned from Q1 2028.
The orders therefore provide an indication of the time horizon embedded in current turbine procurement. Equipment ordered in 2026 is supporting a project pipeline that will translate into installations predominantly in 2027 and 2028.
JUWI’s procurement provides a useful project-level indicator
JUWI’s relationship with Vestas illustrates the conversion of project development activity into equipment commitments.
The developer ordered 31 MW for Heidsiek Lauenstein and 62 MW for Olsberg-Plackweg from Vestas in March 2026. The latest Mehring II and Breuberg orders add another 86.8 MW.
Across those four 2026 contracts, JUWI has therefore committed approximately 180 MW of Vestas capacity.
The significance is not the absolute size of the individual orders. At 86.8 MW, the latest contract is modest relative to Vestas’ global quarterly intake. Its analytical value lies in what it represents: a permitted/developed German project portfolio reaching the turbine procurement stage.
This is precisely the mechanism through which the increase in German permitting can translate into OEM order intake.
Larger turbines are increasing MW per project
There is also a structural change in the composition of European onshore procurement.
The current German orders increasingly centre on machines in the 6–7 MW class. Vestas’ V162-6.2 MW and V162/V172-7.2 MW platforms are representative of this trend, while Nordex is also supplying its Delta4000 platform across projects requiring larger turbines.
The consequence is that MW order intake is becoming less directly correlated with turbine unit volumes.
Nordex reported 788 turbines ordered during H1 2026, corresponding to 4.923 GW. Vestas does not provide an equivalent consolidated turbine-unit figure for its 7.853 GW H1 intake because its disclosed orders include different turbine configurations and a significant number of orders are reported only in MW.
For market analysis, MW is therefore the more robust comparison metric.
The move towards larger turbines has implications beyond manufacturing. Developers must optimise the trade-off between higher turbine output and increased transport, crane, foundation and balance-of-plant requirements. In constrained sites, the ability to increase generation from fewer turbine positions can materially affect project economics.
The competitive picture remains fragmented
Vestas and Nordex account for a substantial share of the Western European turbine market, but they do not constitute the entire competitive field.
Siemens Gamesa remains a major global OEM, with significant exposure to offshore wind and an established European onshore installed base. Enercon retains a particularly strong position in Germany and other European onshore markets. GE Vernova remains active across North America and selected international markets and reported 1.8 GW of wind orders in Q1 2026.
The Chinese OEMs constitute a different competitive category.
Goldwind, Envision, Mingyang and Windey operate at considerable scale in China, where the majority of global wind turbine demand is concentrated. Their international expansion is increasingly relevant to the competitive outlook, particularly as cost differentials between Chinese and Western turbine manufacturers remain significant.
However, direct comparison of 2026 order intake is constrained by differences in disclosure. Vestas and Nordex publish detailed quarterly order-intake data, while several Chinese manufacturers disclose order backlogs, tender wins or contracted capacity on different reporting schedules. It would therefore be misleading to construct a league table of 2026 orders without normalising the underlying datasets.
What the order data says about the market
Three conclusions emerge from the available data.
First, procurement volumes are increasing. The combined 12.8 GW booked by Vestas and Nordex in H1 2026 is 32.6% above their combined H1 2025 order intake.
Second, the recovery is uneven across OEMs. Vestas’ 52.7% increase substantially exceeds Nordex’s 9.6% growth. This reflects not only market demand but also differences in geographic exposure, offshore participation, customer mix and order timing.
Third, European procurement is increasingly being supported by projects progressing through the development pipeline. Germany’s permitting expansion in 2025 is now being reflected in turbine contracts, while the delivery schedules attached to current orders indicate that the resulting construction activity will extend well into 2027 and 2028.
The market therefore needs to be viewed less as a simple rebound in turbine demand and more as a conversion cycle: permitting and auction awards are feeding into financing and final investment decisions, which in turn are generating turbine procurement.
The next test is conversion, not order volume
The most important question for the remainder of 2026 is therefore not whether turbine orders will continue to rise, but how much of the emerging project pipeline will reach financial close and construction.
The underlying demand indicators are supportive. European permitting has increased, turbine order intake is higher, and developers are committing to larger machines.
But the economics remain constrained by competitive auction pricing, grid-connection availability, construction costs, financing conditions and turbine pricing.
For OEMs, higher order volumes will only translate into improved financial performance if pricing and project execution remain sufficiently disciplined.
For developers, turbine procurement represents one of the largest irreversible commitments in the project development cycle. The decision increasingly involves not simply turbine price, but energy yield, availability guarantees, service costs, delivery certainty, financing requirements and long-term asset performance.
The 86.8 MW JUWI–Vestas agreement announced on 26 August therefore fits into a much larger process. It is one transaction within a European procurement cycle in which approximately 12.8 GW has already been ordered by Vestas and Nordex in the first six months of 2026.
The data suggests that Europe’s turbine market has moved beyond the initial recovery phase. The next stage will be determined by how effectively the substantial permitted and auction-backed project pipeline is converted into financed, constructed and ultimately operational wind farms.
