Case Study of Wind Turbine Sourcing: Manufacturer Selection Criteria

Selection of the wind turbine manufacturer is naturally an important issue for wind energy companies when they build new wind farms. This paper describes the main factors by which wind energy companies choose their turbine manufacturers in a selected case region in Finland. The study was conducted using semi-structured interviews, for which the experts and decision makers of selected wind energy companies formed the focus group. During the analysis of the results it became clear that it was not possible to form a detailed and prioritized list of selection criteria, but still some general themes emerged. The main theme was the manufacturer and product reliability, and then the production volume, cost factors, availability factors, and the organization of maintenance in this order. Interestingly the arctic conditions of the selected case region did not play any significant role.