• ZF Wind Power has converted its Belgian plant into a serial production hub for the European wind market.
• In 2024, a mix of SHIFT gearboxes, offshore and onshore powertrains will leave the plant in Lommel (Belgium) every day.
• Thanks to advanced software approaches, the team can balance resources across three serial production lines to ensure optimum production at minimum cost.
Lommel, Belgium. ZF Wind Power is responding to current and future growth in the wind market by installing three serial production lines for complete onshore and offshore powertrains and SHIFT gearboxes.
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.
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…”
ZF Wind Power
ZF Wind Power is a global leader in technology-driven manufacturing and a service partner in the global wind turbine gearbox industry. The company is leading the high-performance onshore segments with products up to 8,000 kNm and is the first to exceed 200 Nm/kg torque density in compact modular platform designs. ZF delivered the world’s first offshore 9.5 MW wind turbine gearbox and, in close cooperation with its partner, delivered the first prototypes of the next-generation offshore powertrains. The company has the world’s largest installed capacity of +8 MW offshore wind turbine gearboxes. Since it entered the wind industry in 1979, ZF Wind Power has delivered more than 85,000 gearboxes, powering up to 195 GW (mainly high-performance) wind turbines, covering almost 25 percent of the total installed capacity of geared-driven wind turbines worldwide. Together with its partners, the company continuously invests in the wind market to empower a sustainable future together.
About ZF
ZF is a global technology company supplying systems for passenger cars, commercial vehicles, and industrial technology, enabling the next generation of mobility. ZF allows vehicles to see, think, and act. Within the four technology domains of Vehicle Motion Control, Integrated Safety, Automated Driving, and Electric Mobility, ZF offers comprehensive product and software solutions for established vehicle manufacturers and newly emerging transport and mobility service providers. ZF electrifies a wide range of vehicle types. With its products, the company contributes to reducing emissions, protecting the climate, and enhancing safe mobility. With some 165,000 employees worldwide, ZF reported sales of €43.8 billion in the 2022 fiscal year. The company operates 168 production locations in 32 countries.
For further press information and photos, please visit www.zf.com.
Press contact:
Kris Adriaenssen, Head of Marketing, ZF Wind Power
Phone: +32 11 34 98 96, email: kris.adriaenssen@zf.com
Gernot Hein, Head of Communications, Industrial Technology Division
Phone: +49 (0)851 494 2480, email: gernot.hein@zf.com
