Beyond the lab: greasing the future of wind energy

Wind turbines operate in some of Earth’s harshest environments, causing equipment stress, leading to accelerated wear. To better understand how critical lubrication is to ensuring components function as designed, PES spoke with Matthias Stammler, Senior Engineer at Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES, and Ulf Rieper, Shell Lubricants Global Product Application Specialist, who came together to discuss their joint investigation into high-performance lubricants that withstand demanding conditions. They discuss their latest research findings and what’s next for the industry.

PES: Matthias, Ulf, it’s great to have you both here. Industry and research don’t always collaborate, but we have both of you in one conversation today. What brought Fraunhofer IWES and Shell together?

Matthias Stammler: Thank you for having us here. Our team at Fraunhofer IWES leads collaborative research projects with industry partners, academic institutions and standardization bodies to help ensure advancements align with global industry needs. Working with stakeholders from across the industry, encompassing most major wind turbine and bearing manufacturers, centers on the real-life conditions operators face daily.

Lubrication is essential to turbine reliability, yet we identified a gap in understanding how demanding environmental conditions truly impact wind turbine systems, particularly greases. Standard testing methods weren’t accurately capturing real-world operating dynamics.

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