U.S. Utility-Scale Wind Turbine Nacelle Production and Trade

This paper examines the evolution of U.S. wind turbine nacelle manufacturing and trade from 2012 to 2020. The results of this analysis indicate that the U.S. wind turbine nacelle manufacturing industry contracted starting in mid-2012, with ten nacelle plants closing during 2012–20. The three largest suppliers, however, maintained nacelle plants and by 2020 U.S. production capacity had rebounded to close to (by number of turbines) or above (by megawatts) 2012 levels. This production supplies most of the domestic market, but the reduction in the number of firms did lead to more reliance on imports in some years. In 2020, amid high demand, U.S. imports significantly increased as some firms did not have enough U.S. production capacity to meet demand and firms without U.S. production gained sales. The share of the market accounted for by imports in 2020 exceeded 30 percent on a megawatt basis and was about 25 percent on a value basis. Further, there is little available capacity to supply export markets and U.S. exports have sharply dropped from their 2014 peak.