On a barren ridge in central Ethiopia, the 34 wind turbines scattered among stunted acacia trees are an unlikely marker of Chinese presence in Africa’s second-most populous country.

But they could be a harbinger of things to come. Chinese wind turbine makers have grown rapidly the past five years and now number among the world’s largest producers in a global wind market expected to be worth €60bn this year. Increasingly, they are setting their sights on places such as the windswept hill at Adama, shifting their focus to developing markets and away from the US and Europe.

Chinese wind companies accounted for more than 30 per cent of global turbine sales last year. They are expanding abroad as installation growth in China, the world’s biggest turbine market, flatlines due a bottleneck in the electricity grid and delays in a new turbine certification process.