Nordex Invests in Türkiye, Vestas Wins First V182 Order

Happy Monday, everyone. Well, in Pennsylvania this past week, two wind farms got a second life, and nobody poured a single new foundation. Now, hold that thought for a moment. This week, the wind industry kept asking one question: Where do you build?

Let’s start in Europe. Chinese turbine makers have a problem. They dominate solar, they dominate batteries, but in Western Europe, every major wind project still buys turbines from Vestas, Siemens or Nordex, and occasionally GE Vernova. So the Chinese are trying a new door, a joint venture. Envision and Mingyang both say they would partner with European companies to build turbines in Europe. Envision’s chief product officer says they are prepared and willing. Its offshore chief hinted that talks may have already started, and they probably have. Mingyang still prefers its own factory, but Britain blocked that plan in Scotland earlier this year, so a local partner is plan B. It is the same play Chinese car makers used in Spain. Same playbook, same problem.

So go south to Turkey. Nordex is not waiting for a partner there. The turbine maker put seventy million euros into Turkey this year. All of its own money, no loans and no incentives. A new factory near Izmir is building turbines now, roughly four hundred a year. Eight hundred and twenty workers today, about twelve hundred by year’s end. A second factory is built and waiting for equipment. And here is the number that matters. Nordex buys one billion euros of parts from Turkish suppliers every year. Nordex says that is sixty to seventy percent of everything made for wind in Turkey. Then it ships many of those parts to other countries. Next month, Nordex will chase a big share of a fifteen hundred megawatt onshore tender. Interesting.

Now east to India. Finnish composite maker Exel Composites just signed a deal with Suzlon. Exel’s Indian joint venture will make carbon fiber planks for Suzlon’s blade spar caps. The deal could top €100 million through March of 2029. It started small, €10 million in 2025, and back then Suzlon would not even let Exel use its name. Now it’s 10 times bigger, and it’s public. Every plank will come from one factory in India, close to the customer, close to the market. Smart move.

Back to Europe and a turbine that is new but not too new. Vestas just booked the first order for its V182 7.2 megawatt turbine. Four machines, 29 megawatts. The Staverhult project in southern Sweden will take those turbines. The V182 sits on the EnVentus platform, and Vestas says it upgraded only what adds value for customers, nothing more. Serial production begins at the end of 2027, and there’s a service deal, a 35-year-long service deal. Wow.

Now to Pennsylvania, where the newest wind farms sit on old towers. Exus Renewables just finished repowering two wind farms in Cambria County, nearly 140 megawatts. There’s new nacelles, new blades, new generators, but the same towers and the same foundations. The work adds 30 more years to farms that already ran nearly 20 years. Financing, about $356 million. And who’s buying that power? A Fortune 500 technology company. Take your guess, right? Exus says buyers like repowered sites because they skip the long wait to connect a new project. And data centers are very hungry, and they do not want to wait in a line.

So what should wind professionals take from this past week? First, local content is no longer a political favor. It is the price of entry. Nordex owns most of Turkey’s wind supply chain, and the Chinese know that and want the same thing in Europe. And if you make towers, castings, or blades in Europe, expect a phone call from a Chinese company. You better decide now what your answer will be.

Second, buyers are paying for certainty, not novelty. Vestas only changed what it had to. And Exus kept the steel that was already in the ground in Pennsylvania for their repower projects. You see, the fastest megawatt in America is the one that is already connected to the grid. Thousands of turbines from the early 2000s are reaching the repower age right about now, and that is really the next big market.

And lastly, do the math on the service deal. The 35-year commitment is quite long, and a lot of operators are thinking about the length of their service contracts right about now.

And that is the state of the wind industry for the 28th of September, 2026. Join us for the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast tomorrow.