2010 marked a pivotal year both for global turbine manufacturing capacity and installed capacity around the world.

Global wind turbines saw a record 39.9 GW delivered in 2010. Although leader Vestas saw its market share increase to 14.7% last year also marked a shift as Chinese manufacturers increased deliveries. Sinovel, Goldwind, and Donfang have increased their combined market share by nearly 6% annually on average up to 27% in 2010.

Driven by Chinese demand, Asia Pacific markets accounted for over 54% of global wind turbine deliveries in 2010, up from 43% in 2009 – a trend that is likely to continue.

North America saw the most dramatic drop in market share: the region accounted for 17.7% of turbine deliveries last year, down from over 26.3% in 2009.

Meanwhile, even as the wind rush races through the US market, with record installations of 3,360 MW in 2011, its total installed capacity of 43 GW still lags behind Europe’s 84GW in 2010 with another 89 GW expected by 2020.

But both regions will be outpaced this year by China, which will have an estimated installed capacity of 55 GW by the end of 2011 – a giant leap from 2.67 GW in 2006 – with plenty of room for growth with its 100 GW 2020 target.

With thanks to IHS Emerging Energy Research for supplying data used in the graphic and text.

This article is part of a week long investigative series on the state of the wind industry. For more coverage, check out the Wind Rush tag on the site, and follow and participate on pressing industry issues in the Groups tab of Breaking Energy.