Wind energy can contribute to national climate, energy and economic goals by expanding clean energy and supporting economies through new manufacturing industries. However, the mechanisms for achieving these interlinked goals are not well understood. Here we analyse the wind energy manufacturing global value chain, using a dataset on 389 component supplier firms (2006–2016) that work with 13 original equipment manufacturers. We assess how technology complexity, that is, the knowledge intensity and difficulty of manufacturing components, shapes the location of suppliers. For countries without existing wind industries, we find evidence of the emergence of suppliers for only low-complexity components (for example, towers and generators). For countries with existing wind industries, we find that suppliers’ evolution, that is, changes in their international supply relationships, is less likely for high-complexity components (for example, blades and gearboxes). Our findings show the importance of understanding technologies along with firms and countries within global value chains for achieving policy goals.

风能可以通过扩大清洁能源和通过新的制造业支持经济来为国家气候，能源和经济目标做出贡献。但是，对于实现这些相互关联的目标的机制知之甚少。在这里，我们使用与13家原始设备制造商合作的389个零部件供应商公司（2006-2016年）的数据集来分析风能制造的全球价值链。我们评估技术的复杂性（即制造组件的知识强度和难度）如何影响供应商的位置。对于没有现有风能产业的国家，我们发现只有低复杂性组件（例如，塔架和发电机）的供应商出现的证据。对于具有现有风能产业的国家，我们发现供应商的发展，即 高复杂度组件（例如，叶片和变速箱）的国际供应关系发生变化的可能性较小。我们的发现表明，了解技术以及全球价值链中的公司和国家对于实现政策目标的重要性。