Voith embraces wind power as renewable energy source

HEIDENHEIM, GERMANY. With its re-entry into the wind power segment in 2020, technology group Voith is pushing the ongoing decarbonization of electricity production and thus meeting the growing requirement for solutions for carbon-neutral power generation. In a joint venture with China Railway Rolling Stock Corp (CRRC) in China, the company is developing and producing highly efficient wind turbine gearboxes for leading wind turbine manufacturers. Voith subsidiary ELIN Motoren GmbH, which was acquired by Voith in 2020, complements these activities through its existing wind generator business. ELIN Motoren has been supplying generators to the wind power industry for 30 years. In the last 20 years, the company supplied more than 15,000 generators with capacities of 750 kW to 10 MW for the wind power market. Through high-performance products and extensive flexibility, Voith aims to press ahead with its internationalization strategy and significantly expand its global market share, including the service business, in the next few years.

The first phase of the Chinese wind turbine gearbox joint venture focused on the development of gearboxes for Chinese wind power plants with a diameter of 143 m and an output of 2.5 MW, manufactured by CRRC Voith. The first sales orders have already been successfully completed. In keeping with the trend towards larger and more powerful systems, the joint venture is currently working on a new 5.x MW platform for the Asian market, which is set to be launched in 2021.

In the next phase, Voith intends to combine the available electrical and mechanical expertise to develop highly integrated and efficient drive solutions for the wind power industry of the future. The company's wind power activities will concentrate on the European and Asian markets. Knowledge-sharing between the partners, a worldwide service network, and production facilities in Eastern Europe, India and China put Voith in a good position to provide global support to wind turbine manufacturers and end users.