ZF Wind Power is ready to transform Europe with green power

The demand for wind energy is growing worldwide. In Europe, 18.3 GW of new wind turbines were installed in 2023. From 2024 to 2030, two-thirds of new installations will continue to be onshore, but offshore wind installations will increase rapidly towards the end of the decade. By 2030, new offshore installations will be almost equal to new onshore installations. This will allow us to meet energy security and climate targets by 2030. Getting there will depend on the implementation of excellent actions in the new EU Wind Power Package by all stakeholders: governments, suppliers, OEMs, etc. As a supplier, ZF Wind Power is responding by expanding its portfolio from serial gearbox production to serial powertrain production.

Empowering a sustainable future together at all levels
The wind energy supply chain faces massive challenges. National governments should simplify and accelerate permit issuance. While WindEurope assists in identifying and tackling specific bottlenecks in permitting rules and procedures at the national level, wind turbine manufacturers are taking drastic measures to mitigate risks based on strong market fundamentals for sustainable growth.

ZF Wind Power is committed to taking important steps in empowering a sustainable future together with all stakeholders.

“At ZF, we are prepared for the future with various optimizations and investments to produce gearboxes and powertrains to meet European demand, both onshore and offshore. The EU’s renewable energy target of 42.5% by 2030 is ambitious but not impossible to achieve. We have to start now and all together,” says Felix Henseler, CEO of ZF Wind Power.

Empowering a sustainable European landscape
To accelerate green energy coverage of the European landscape, ZF has converted its Belgian plant into a serial production hub with three serial production lines for the offshore and onshore markets.

With the integration of the offshore production line, the company can cover the entire European offshore landscape. “Thanks to the close cooperation with our partners, we can now manufacture innovative powertrain models for offshore turbines that can produce up to 80 GWh/year,“ says Felix Henseler. This means that one turbine can produce enough energy to power up to 20,000 European households*.

With serial production of the onshore powertrain, ZF can deliver four powertrain variants for these turbine platforms with a power output of up to 7.2 MW.

In addition to powertrain assembly, the modular gearbox design allows ZF to combine its SHIFT gearbox platform assembly and testing capabilities to meet current and future market demands.

These advanced wind gearboxes and powertrains will accelerate the shift from climate-damaging fuels to clean wind energy.

Smart industrialization and industrial innovation
Serial production and assembly of extreme products, both in terms of weight and size, require very specific expertise and skills. “You can think of these serial production lines as a balanced mix of automotive and aerospace production. We produce high-tech commodity products in a high-tech, lean and high-quality environment,“ says Felix Henseler.

“Thanks to 45 years of experience and investments by us and our partners in digitalization and smart industrialization of these processes, ZF can demonstrate its position as a leader in industrial innovation,” he continues.

The team can optimize the operations for a tact-driven, just-in-time supply chain. They used advanced software tools to build and validate a digital twin of the production facility before converting the plant and setting up assembly processes to make the most of existing production knowledge. ZF Wind Power now uses these tools to balance resources across all production lines, including all required assembly and logistics that must be virtually predefined, checked in 3D, optimized and validated. It ensures swift and effective integration of all production lines and guarantees interconnectivity and maximum availability and flexibility in response to market demand for high-performance products.

“This level of smart industrialization ensures we can deliver high-quality products while optimizing production costs and minimizing failure or quality expenses,“ explains Felix Henseler. “It illustrates that we are investing and ready to work with our partners to empower a sustainable future. We will support Europe in its plans to transform the energy system with wind power, and there’s more to come.”

*Calculation is based on nameplate capacity divided by energy consumption, excluding losses, using Eurostat 2021 data. 

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