Danish Wind Turbine Industry Report - Sara Grobbelaar

The Danish commercial wind turbines industry – a ͟͠͞͞
business eco-system perspective
The Danish commercial wind turbines

industry
A business eco-system perspective
Author: Sara Grobbelaar
University of Cambridge
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Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 3
Early days: 200 BC to 1970s .................................................................................................................... 3
Methodology: The wind turbine industry as an eco-system .................................................................. 4
Political environment .............................................................................................................................. 6
The Knowledge and Technology environment ....................................................................................... 8
Establishing a dominant design .......................................................................................................... 9
Important technological breakthroughs in industry evolution ........................................................ 10
Collaborations with suppliers of enabling technology ..................................................................... 12
The Natural environment...................................................................................................................... 12
The crucial role of public ownership and acceptance in Denmark ................................................... 13
The evolution of the global market for wind turbines...................................................................... 13
The Competitive environment .............................................................................................................. 16
Core contributors: The turbine manufacturers ................................................................................ 16
Suppliers and complementary firms ................................................................................................. 18
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 19
References ............................................................................................................................................ 20
Appendix ............................................................................................................................................... 23
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Introduction
This report focuses on the evolution of the Danish commercial wind turbine industry over the 1970
to 2010 period. The industry is analysed from a business eco-system perspective.
The first section aims at shortly discussing the historical background of the industry up to the early
1970s. The remainder of the report is focused on exploring the Danish wind-turbine eco-system and
the various stages of industry evolution. Throughout the report it is attempted to highlight the key
events and driving forces shaping the Danish wind turbine industry from each of the “environments”
as described by the eco-system perspective. It is attempted throughout the report to draw attention
to the impact these events had on turbine manufacturers in Denmark and on the owners of turbines
(where relevant).
In addition to the business eco-system perspective, the report seeks to make use of various concepts
such as historical time lines of industry development, industry stages of development, product life-
cycles, design hierarchies, dominant designs, innovation strategies, collaborations and value chains.
Early days: 200 BC to 1970s
Figure 1: Timeline of key historic events for the development of the Danish wind turbine industry pre 1970
(Author’s summary of key events as discussed in the text)
Since early recorded history man has been harnessing the power of wind. Early attempts date back
as far as 5000 BC where wind was powering sail boats on the Nile. It was however the search for
mechanising agriculture that gave rise to the invention of the windmill. Earliest models of windmills
were used in China in 200 BC to pump water. The innovation slowly diffused to the Middle East
where it was widely used in agriculture by the 11th century. From there this idea was carried back by
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traders to Europe where the Dutch refined the windmill to drain lakes and marshes (US Department
of Energy, 2005) (See Figure 1).
Towards the end of the 19th century, electricity was very quickly diffusing throughout the
industrialising world (Kristinsson et al, 2005). Attempts to further develop windmill technology were
therefore primarily focused on the mechanisation of agriculture through local generation of
electricity (Vestergaard e al, 2004a).
The early pioneer in Denmark to experiment with electricity generation through wind energy was
Paul la Cour who developed a DC electricity generator from windmill technology in 1890. In 1950,
Johannes Juul and earlier student of La Cour designed and developed an AC generator wind turbine
and improved on this design in 1956 to develop the Gedser machine – the pioneering design for
modern wind turbines (Vestergaard e al, 2004a).
The popularity of wind generation of power has ebbed and flowed as an alternative to fossil fuels as
prices for fossil fuels fluctuated over the years (Kristinsson et al, 2005). It was during the times of the
world wars and during times of shortages of fossil fuels that a fair amount of attention was again
granted to reconsider the role of wind in electricity generation. (US Department of Energy, 2005).
It was only after the oil crises in the early 1970s that the very high dependence on fossil fuel (90% of
Danish energy in 1970s) imported from less stable regions placed wind energy again on the agenda
(Vestergaard, 2004a).
It is then from this point onwards, the 1970s that this report will tell the story of the evolution of the
Danish wind turbine industry.
Methodology: The wind turbine industry as an eco-system

This report attempts to discuss and analyse the development of the Danish Wind Turbine industry
over the past 40 years from an eco-system perspective. Moore (1993) and (1996) developed this
view in order for business executives to have a richer and more involved view of the environment
and forces that shape their industries.
“In a business ecosystem, companies co-evolve capabilities around a new innovation: they work
cooperatively and competitively to support new products, satisfy customer needs, and eventually
incorporate the next round of innovations.” (Moore, 1993, p.76)
The business eco-system perspective seeks to go beyond the direct firm value chain to incorporate a
wider analysis of actors driving and shaping the industry (Moore, 1996). Figure 2 outlines the various
environments and actors considered in the analysis:
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Figure 2: The wind turbine manufacturer industry from an industry eco-system perspective (Author’s
interpretation based on the analysis conducted in the following sections)
Note on the structure of the report:

As the uptake of wind energy in Denmark and globally has been heavily affected by government
policy and support measures (Diaz-Rainey, 2008) the discussion is initiated with an analysis of key
measures through which innovation was supported and induced through the political environment.
Although the author appreciates the structure of the business eco-system as suggested by the
theory (Moore, 1993), the report follows a slightly different structure in order to reduce the level of
repetition of certain concepts.
For the purpose of this report, the technology and knowledge environment briefly discusses key
technological developments and collaborations with companies with enabling technology. The
discussions of the suppliers and complementary firms are combined with the discussion on core
contributors under the heading “Competitive environment”
Care is taken to discuss and highlight the co-evolution of actors in the eco-system. For this purpose
the report follows Moore’s (1993) definition of the various stages of the development of an eco-
system (Birth, Expansion, Leadership and then Renewal) (See Table 2 in appendix, for Moore’s
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explanation of these stages). The following sections outline the co-evolution of the eco-system for
the various stages of development.
Political environment
Figure 3: Evolution of political environment for Danish turbine manufacturer eco-system (Author’s
summary of key events as discussed in text)
After the oil crisis of the 1970s the Danish government’s policy was to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.
It was also during this time that the green movement started to rise giving the wind turbine industry
further political support (Vestergaard et al, 2004b). This heralded a period of government support to
the industry in Denmark.
A series of government policies and support mechanisms were put in place to develop wind
technology and to stimulate the uptake of the technology i.e. to induce diffusion of the technology
in the Danish market Diaz-Rainey (2008).
Diaz-Rainey (2008, p.27) defines an induced diffusion as “Any intervention that aims to alter the
speed and/or total level of adoption of an innovation by directly or indirectly internalising positive
and/or negative externalities”
The Danish government set some ambitious targets for utilities to install wind power. Two orders of
100 MW were issued in 1985 and 1990 and an order for 200MW for completion in 2000. In 1998 the
Danish government ordered an additional 750MW offshore wind power to be installed (Krohn,
2002).
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The incentives offered by the Danish government to encourage the installation of wind turbines
were aimed at combining market stimulation incentives with national targets (as mentioned above):
• Over the 1979 to 1989 period the Danish government offered a subsidy scheme of 30% of
total cost for installing a wind turbine (Klaasen, 2005).
• During the mid-1980s government introduced yet another incentive to wind farm owners by
offering a partial refund on energy and environment taxes on electricity consumption
(Klaasen, 2005).
The Danish government provided further assistance to the Wind turbine industry through
coordinated R&D support programmes.
• In 1978 the test station Riso was established by the government to undertake research to
develop turbines for industrial production. Government sponsored subsidies were made
available for constructing turbines under the condition that systems be approved by the Riso
test station. (Vestergaard et al, 2004b). The consequence of this was that quality of Danish
turbines improved drastically as Riso determined which designs were superior. The test
station increased in importance and by 1982 it was actively participating in technological
development. Standard certification and standard requirements is one of the main reasons
the Danish industry was to become so successful (Krohn, 2002).
• Over the 1976 to 1995 period the Danish Government spent 10% of the energy research
programme on wind energy with the main focus of developing large commercial turbines
(Klaassen, 2005).
High growth in the domestic energy in the 1990s but later stagnation in the early 2000s was driven
by government policy regarding wind energy:
• In 1985, after much deliberation, Nuclear energy was prohibited in Denmark setting the
scene for wind to grow (Aquamarine ltd, 2010).
• In 1990 the New energy plan was published with it main goal as sustainable energy
development. The Danish government inaugurated a tariff scheme which made it
compulsory to utilities to offer 10-year fixed rate contracts for wind energy (Time, 2009).
This policy stance gave wind a further boost and there was a period of rapid growth in the
market over the 1994 to 2002 period (Klaasen, 2005).
• However stagnation in terms of installing more wind power set in after the change of
government in 2001 and a change in policy as the government scaled back subsidies for wind
and other renewables (Time, 2009).
The following figure graphically depicts the growth of installed capacity in Denmark, outlining key
policies over the period 1980 to 2009.
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Figure 4: Installed wind capacity in Denmark and key government support mechanisms (1980 to
2009)(Source: Musgrove (2010), p.163)
Although the establishment of a domestic market was crucial in industry development, the Danish
turbine industry has been export focussed from early on (to be discussed in natural environment
section) and therefore policies in other areas of the world also had impact on the evolution of the
industry, examples include:
• Aggressive environmental policies by Governor Brown in California over the period 1980 to
1985 gave rise to the “California wind-rush” a period of high demand for turbines in
California which kick started the industry (Vestergaard et al, 2004b).
• The 2001 Renewable Energy EU directives drove demand for wind energy as it set an
indicative target of 21% of electricity demand to be supplied by renewables by 2010 (EWEA,
2010).
The Knowledge and Technology environment

The following section illustrates the various technology trajectories that were in existence and the
market position taken by the Danish wind turbine industry to have a focussed effort to establish a
dominant design.
“The emergence of a dominant design is not necessarily predetermined, but is the result of the
interplay between technical and market choices at any particular time…the persistence of dominant
designs illustrates the momentum of both established practice and complementary assets”
(Utterback, 1996, p.27)
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Establishing a dominant design
Figure 5 outlines a number of technology trajectories that have been tested internationally over the
past 60 years.
Figure 5: Technology trajectories/design hierarchies and the development of a dominant design (Authors
summary of leading technological trajectories discussed in the text)
In America the Smith-Putnam design was developed through a collaboration between universities
and industry resulting in a quite complex, two-bladed-mill concept (Nielsen, 2010). In Germany,
Hutter experimented with smaller wind turbine designs with some very innovative outcomes such as
load shedding design features and the use of a bearing at the rotor hub which were eventually used
by US turbine manufacturers. Some Darrieus-type vertical axis designs were reinvented in the 1960s
and led to variants such as the Gyro-mill and Cycloturbine (Dodge, 2005).
During the 1970s the Danish experimented with a number of designs and variants of
abovementioned designs were in commercial production in Denmark. The concept that eventually
gained dominance in the Danish market was the upwind, stall regulated, grid connected, three
bladed, horizontal axis concept, later called “the Danish concept” (Hansen, 1999).
The successful establishment of a dominant design in the market was the result of a focussed effort
and collaboration between government and industry (Nielsen, 2010). The R&D support provided by
government and the activities of the Riso test centre helped to identify the three-bladed wind
turbine as a standard design for wind energy generation (Economist, 2010).
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Figure 6 is a graphical representation of the market share of “Danish concept” turbines over the 1978
to 1997 period. The product life-cycles of six generations of turbines are included in this figure
ranging from 22-30kW turbines to 450-600kW turbines. Considering the total percentage of Danish
concept turbines installed in Denmark, the marked increase from 40% of newly installed turbines in
1979 to an average of around 90% during the 1990s is clear evidence of the dominance of the Danish
concept in this market (Hansen, 1999).
Figure 6: Market shares of generation 1 to 6 of “Danish concept” turbines over the 1978 to 1997 period in
Denmark (Source: Hansen, 1999, p. 456)
Important technological breakthroughs in industry evolution

The knowledge base of the wind turbine industry is mechanical and electrical engineering mixed
with software and aerodynamics (Johnson and Jacobsson, 2000). Technology developments
historically have been focused on reducing the cost of wind electricity generation (Danish Wind
Industry Association, 2010b):
• A key development in the technology and knowledge environment was the development of the
55kW generation of turbines in 1980 to 1981. These turbines led to a 50% reduction of cost per
kWh. This was a significant breakthrough for the industry which led to the industry being much
more professionalised.
• A parallel development to this was that the Riso test centre developed the European Wind Atlas
method (a method for establishing most suitable locations for wind turbines) which was also
crucial in lowering costs of electricity generation.
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The cost of electricity through wind generation has indeed reduced dramatically over the past 20
years and in 2005 it compared much more favourably than other renewable alternatives (see Figure
7). Diaz-Rainey (2009) states that this is the result of numerous factors including scale economies
that have been achieved by increasing turbine size, technological advances (to enable larger size and
lower production costs) and “learning-by-doing”.
Figure 7: Reduction of wind energy costs per kWh over time; Wind energy costs compared to competing
technologies (Source: Kristinsson and Rao, R., 2005, p. 25 and p. 26)
Current developments in the field are mostly focussed on further lowering costs and gaining more
acceptance with the public. Public acceptance issues range from concerns regarding the
unsightliness of turbines, to the high noise levels and concerns regarding the threat to bird life. As a
result, offshore wind farms have arisen as a partial solution to these problems (The Economist,
2009). See the following figure depicting a CAGR of 19% over the 2010 to 2020 period for offshore
compared to 4% of installations for onshore indicating offshore to be the future growth market
(EWEA, 2008):
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Figure 8: Forecasted offshore and onshore installation in the EU-27 countries over the 2000 to 2020 period
(Source: EWEA (2008), p.36)
Collaborations with suppliers of enabling technology

Although Vestas, the leading Danish turbine manufacturer has been a pioneer on offshore wind
turbines, they have recently fallen behind in the race for developing ever increasing turbines for the
offshore market (Harder, 2009). The following case study discusses how Vestas has responded to
this challenge (Harder, 2009):
Case study: Open innovation at Vestas in 2009
The entry of large powerful competitors with large R&D budgets such as Siemens and General
Electric has forced leading Danish manufacturer Vestas to introduce a business model innovation in
the form of open innovation i.e. an inter-firm collaboration in R&D with Boeing.
With the trend of increasing size of wind turbines ,Vestas turned to Boeing for collaboration in R&D
projects for the development of stronger and lighter materials for blades. Although the original
intention was product innovation it was soon found that there are many opportunities for process
innovations to be adopted for manufacturing processes for large structures through this
collaboration.
The promise and success of this collaboration has changed Vestas’ innovation strategy. They are in
the process of developing open innovation networks to work with the world’s best research centres
to collaborate on developing new technology.
The Natural environment

The natural environment has played an important role in the evolution of the Danish wind turbine
industry. In this section the role of public opinion and participation in establishing a domestic
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industry is introduced after which the development of a global market and the impact it had on
Danish wind turbine manufacturers is discussed.
The crucial role of public ownership and acceptance in Denmark

During 1970s the Danish public became more aware of environment and more conscious about
energy and energy consumption. Many individual owners invested in installing wind turbines for
own energy consumption with the option to sell excess electricity into the grid. By the early 1980s
several manufacturers produced larger and more cost effective wind turbines of 55kW. These
turbines were however too large for most individual owners and therefore the concept of local wind
co-operatives developed where groups of people invested in wind-turbines together (Olesen, 2003).
Wind turbine owners started to organise themselves into groups of which an example is the
Organisation of Danish Wind Power Stations. This organisation had a monthly publication on
performance of turbines providing detailed information on wind turbine performance parameters by
brand and model (Moore and Ihle, 1999). This played a great role in technological development for
the Danish wind turbine industry as thorough data was gathered on all technical problems and
performance of turbines (Moore and Ihle, 1999), (Vestergaard, 2004b).
As government allowed ownership by co-operations and guilds, these developments allowed for a
very interesting ownership model to take shape in Denmark. In 1999 50% of the turbines in Denmark
were owned by 67,000 guild members with the other 50% individually owned. This structure greatly
benefited especially rural areas (Vestergaard, 2004b).
The evolution of the global market for wind turbines

Due to the relatively small size of the domestic market (2% of installed capacity in 2009 in Figure 9),
Danish companies have been export focused from the outset in order to sustain growth and to make
optimal use of their leadership position.
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Figure 9: World market share of installed capacity of Wind energy by country (Source: Earth Policy Institute,
2009)
Over the period 1980 to 1989 the first significant commercial market for wind turbines appeared in
California. Danish wind turbine manufacturers had a longer track record than competitors and made
their first mover advantage to secure contracts of such a size that enabled batch production. About
50% of the turbines installed during that time in California were of Danish origin (Vestergaard et al,
2004b).
With the disappearance of the Californian support scheme in 1985, waning political interest and
lower oil prices in 1987 the Californian market disappeared overnight and almost all Danish turbine
manufacturers were faced with bankruptcy. This incident exposed the risks of building an industry
with one major export market (Vestergaard et al, 2004b).
See Figure 10 for the sales figures by Danish manufacturers over the 1983 to 2006 period, from this
graph it is clear that despite the slump in 1987 (the end of the California wind-rush), Danish
manufacturers have been successful in capturing good export business over the past 15 years. It was
however only until the late 1990s that the global market for Danish wind turbines really took off.
Figure 10: Sales in MW by Danish wind turbine manufacturers (1983 - 2006)(Danish Wind Industry
Association, 2004)
Recent growth markets for the wind turbine industry have been the USA , China, India, Germany and
Spain with these countries exhibiting high levels of new installations of wind turbines (See Figure
11). The US has exhibited a CAGR in total installed capacity of 39% over the 2004 to 2009 period
whereas China has exhibited an air gasping 101% over the same period.
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Figure 11: Cumulative installed capacity in selected markets (Data source: Earth Policy Institute, 2010)
It is however possible that the growth of the Asian markets may threaten the leadership position of
Danish wind turbine manufacturers. Whereas China in 2008 was adding in excess of 6 GW of wind
capacity per year the top Danish manufacturer Vestas only has been able to capture 4% of Chinese
market share (See Figure 12).
Figure 12: New wind installed capacity for selected countries (Data source: WWEA (2009), p. 5) and turbine
manufacturer market shares in China (Junfeng (2010), p. 22)
The implications of this trend are discussed in the following section that considers the evolution of
the competitive environment.
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The Competitive environment
Core contributors: The turbine manufacturers
Figure 13: Author’s summary of key events in turbine manufacturer space as discussed in text
As their existence was threatened during the economic stagnation of the 1970s, many firms in
Denmark were trying to get involved in new product areas and markets in order to survive
(Vestergaard, 2004b). Some of these firms were making use of current know-how in manufacturing
industries to get a foothold in the wind turbine industry. Examples of these firms include
(Vestergaard, 2004b):
• NEG Micon - originally manufacturer of road tanks for oil industry

• Vestas - a former blacksmith shop
• Bonus - company manufacturing accessories to agriculture
During the boom of the Californian wind-rush many new entrants jumped on the band wagon but
when the incentive system was cancelled most came to bankruptcy including Vestas. Vestas
subsequently was bought by a small group of investors in 1987 who decided to focus on its
reputation for the best wind turbines. This approach was successful and within 6 months Vestas
secured a contract for 6 wind projects in India (Vestas, 2010).
After a prolonged period of Danish domination of the world market, the world stage for turbine
manufacturers has become much more competitive over the past 10 years as huge growth in this
industry attracted more powerful competitors and as the forces of globalisation swept over the
industry (Lewis and Wiser, 2007).
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• New powerful entrants into the global wind turbine manufacturing industry such as General
Electric (2002) and Siemens (October 2004) has put pressure on existing firms to consolidate
and strengthen their market positions (Lewis and Wiser, 2007).
• New entrants from India and China have also been increasing market power and become
globalised. For example, in 2009 German manufacturer REPower was acquired by Indian
Suzlon to increase market share, achieve scale economies and to achieve vertical integration
in the industry (Zaveri, 2009).
Danish manufacturers have reacted to these threats through market consolidation e.g. Vestas and
NEG Micon (at that time positioned numbers 1 and 2 in terms of global market share) merged in
2003 (Lewis and Wiser, 2007). Danish manufacturers and component suppliers have also become
more globalised by setting up production facilities and sales offices in growth markets such as the
USA and China (Danish Wind Industry Association, 2010a)(Vestergaard et al, 2004a).
The impact of the intensification of competition and the growing dominance of Asian manufacturers
could also be observed in Figure 14 which provides an indication of turbine manufacturer market
shares in 2007 and 2009 period. Only one Danish turbine manufacturer (Vestas) remains in the top
10 manufacturers worldwide. Over the 2007 to 2009 period more Asian companies have moved into
the top 10 turbine manufacturers and as a group have significantly increased market share from 17%
in 2007 to in excess of 30% in 2009.
Figure 14: World market shares of wind turbine manufacturers (Source: BTM consulting (2008), p.12)
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Suppliers and complementary firms
Figure 15: Author’s summary of key events in supplier and complementary firm space as discussed in text
Along with the growing wind turbine manufacturers grew the supporting industries supplying blades,
control systems and gears. For example a Danish company LM Glasfiber (originally a sailboat
manufacturer) was struggling to enter the blade manufacturing business until Altenergy a dominant
American blade manufacturer went bankrupt in 1986 during the industry shakeout. A collaborative
relationship was established after Vestas invested in the company to be a backup to its own blade
manufacturing division (Vestergaard, 2004b). Through this opportunistic behaviour and a co-
evolutionary relationship, LM emerged as the dominant supplier of blades to leading turbine
manufacturers (See Table 1).
The bulk of leading turbine manufacturers remain mostly vertically integrated with several turbine
manufacturers supplying main components in-house (Names in bold in Table 1 indicate in-house
manufacturing capabilities by turbine manufacturers).
Table 1: Suppliers of sub-component to leading turbine manufacturers (Source: table copied from BTM consulting
(2009), p. 29)
Turbine Rotor blades Gearboxes Generators Towers Controllers

manufacturer
Vestas Vestas, LM Bosch Weler Vestas Cotas
Rexroth, (Vestas), Ellin, (Vestas), NEG
Hansen, ABB, (Dancontrol)
Winergy, LeroySomer
Moventas
GE energy LM, Tecsis Winergy, Loher, GE DMI, Omnical, GE
Bosch, SIAG
Rexroth,
Eickhoff, GE
Gamesa Gamesa, LM Echesa Indar Gamesa Ingelectric
(Gamesa), (Gamesa), (Gamesa)
Winergy, Cantarey
Hansen
Enercon Enercon Direct drive Enercon KGW, SAM Enercon
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Siemens Wind Siemens, LM Winergy ABB Roug, KGW Siemens, KK
Electronic
Suzlon Suzlon Hansen, Suzlon, Suzlon Suzlon, Mita
Winergy Siemens Teknik
Nordex Nordex Winergy, Loher Nordex, Nordex, Mita
Eickhoff, Maag Omnical Teknk
Conclusion
The Danish turbine manufacturer industry has established itself as the current market leader as a
result of the following factors:
• Early involvement in technology development, national testing and standardisation and

achieving design consensus at an early stage;
• Coordinated government support mechanisms through long term R&D support, premium
tariffs for wind electricity generation and ambitious national targets;
• The role of local ownership of turbines by co-operatives and guilds establishing a domestic
market in which Danish manufacturers could develop technological capabilities;
• Successes in capitalising from first mover advantage by capturing significant export
opportunities and establishing a reputation for high quality turbines at an early stage.
Over the past decade the Danish leadership position has however become increasingly under threat:
• Powerful new entrants such as General Electric and Siemens with large R&D budgets and
abilities to develop ever increasing turbines and thereby achieving early success in capturing
market share in the onshore and lucrative offshore market;
• Growing market power of Asian turbine manufacturers as China and India is emerging as
growth markets supporting their own domestic industries in the process.
Danish manufacturers have responded to these threats by consolidation of the market and by
employing innovative business practices such as open innovation to leverage the know-how of the
world’s best research centres. These measures could indicate that the Danish turbine industry has
entered the self –renewal stage, but the long term success of these measures remains uncertain as
competition is intensifying in a globalising industry.
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21
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December 2010)
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22
Appendix
Table 2: Moore’s evolutionary stages of a Business Ecosystem (Table copied from Moore, 1993, p. 77)
Comparative Challenges Competitive challenges

Birth Work with customers and suppliers to Protect your ideas from others who
define the new value proposition around might be working toward defining
a seed innovation similar offers. Tie up critical lead
customers, key suppliers, and
important channels
Expansion Bring the new offer to a large market by Defeat alternative implementations of
working with suppliers and partners to similar ideas. Ensure that your
scale up supply and to achieve maximum approach is the market standard in its
market coverage class through dominating key market
segments
Leadership Provide a compelling vision for the future Maintain strong bargaining power in
that encourages suppliers and customers relation to other players in the eco-
to work together to continue improving system, including key customers and
the complete offer valued suppliers
Self-renewal Work with innovators to bring new ideas Maintain high barrier to entry to
to the existing eco-system prevent innovators from building
alternative eco-systems. Maintain high
customer switching costs in order to
buy time to incorporate new ideas into
your own products and services
23

Danish Wind Turbine Industry Report - Sara Grobbelaar

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The Danish commercial wind turbines industry – a ͟͠͞͞

business eco-system perspective

The Danish commercial wind turbines

Author: Sara Grobbelaar

Early days: 200 BC to 1970s

Methodology: The wind turbine industry as an eco-system

Note on the structure of the report:

The Knowledge and Technology environment

Important technological breakthroughs in industry evolution

Collaborations with suppliers of enabling technology

Case study: Open innovation at Vestas in 2009

The Natural environment

The crucial role of public ownership and acceptance in Denmark

The evolution of the global market for wind turbines

The Competitive environment

Core contributors: The turbine manufacturers

• NEG Micon - originally manufacturer of road tanks for oil industry

Turbine Rotor blades Gearboxes Generators Towers Controllers

• Early involvement in technology development, national testing and standardisation and

Economist, 2008. “Case History: Wind of change”, 4/12/2008,

Musgrove, P., (2010). Wind Power, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

US Department of energy, (2005). “The History of Wind Energy”.

Vestas, 2010. “About Vestas”. http://www.vestas.com/en/about-vestas/history.aspx (Accessed 8

Wind Energy the Facts, (2010). “Growth of Wind Turbine Size”,

Comparative Challenges Competitive challenges

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