Compared to traditional steel towers, hybrid wind power towers boast higher, stronger, and more economical advantages. In the trend of large-megawatt wind turbines and the quest for higher resources, the hybrid tower market has broad prospects. Its penetration rate is expected to accelerate, with the industry entering a higher threshold. In the medium to long term, its competitive landscape, profitability, and growth potential may be significantly better than traditional steel towers.
Hybrid wind power towers, i.e., concrete-steel hybrid towers, are an important component of wind power units. Typically, their lower part is a concrete tower section and the upper part is a steel tower section. Compared to traditional steel towers, the advantages of hybrid towers are gradually becoming evident:
Hybrid tower have high load-bearing capacity, high stability, easy maintenance, and more power generation performance advantages.
The prefabricated parts of hybrid towers can be standardized and modularized, shortening the manufacturing cycle, and the intensity of capacity investment is significantly lower than that of steel towers.
At the same height of 140m, the cost of hybrid towers is only 60%-70% of steel towers, and the cost advantage of hybrid towers is expected to further expand with the increase in tower height, likely becoming the mainstream form of ultra-high towers.
China generally has a large wind shear. Increasing the height of wind turbines usually brings an increase in wind speed and wind turbine power. In the era of wind power parity and the large-scale wind turbine, towers are no longer just components that support wind turbines but are also crucial equipment to enhance wind energy acquisition capacity.
In low wind speed regions, hybrid towers help to further increase the hub height, expanding the wind power development market. In high wind speed regions, with onshore wind turbine power increasing to 8MW+, the structural requirements are elevated, highlighting the cost-effectiveness of hybrid towers. Additionally, for offshore wind power, the industry is also innovating floating transportation + fixed self-elevating products to verify the feasibility of hybrid towers in the offshore wind sector.
In 2023, the penetration rate of the Chinese hybrid tower market surpassed 10% for the first time, corresponding to a market size of about 5 billion yuan. As a leading wind turbine manufacturers, we expect the penetration rate to exceed 40% by the end of 2025. The CAGR of the market space over the next three years may exceed 70%, indicating immense growth potential.
The construction of hybrid towers primarily involves key processes such as foundation engineering, manufacturing concrete tower segments, installing interior accessories, hoisting tower sections, and prestressing the pre-tensioned system. Among these, segment design, manufacturing, and prestress systems are core links, with the industry threshold being higher than traditional steel towers. Comprehensive and leading design capabilities are the core competitiveness of good wind power hybrid towers. Currently, only a few top-tier companies in the hybrid tower industry have independent first-class design qualifications. High-performance concrete (UHPC) production adjustments and quality control are the basics of good wind power hybrid towers.
At present, mainstream UHPC commonly adopts grades C80-C95, and it is expected to break through to C120-C170 in the future. Regarding tower shapes, tapered designs are simple and currently mainstream, while cylinders with variable diameters possess standardized production advantages and are likely to be gradually promoted. In terms of component manufacturing, vertical processes continue to be the mainstream mode for segment manufacturing. For prestressed systems, external prestress is more common but has strength risks, while internal prestress design requirements and strength are higher and are expected to be the long-term development direction.
