- Get in Touch with Us
Last Updated: Apr 25, 2025 | Study Period: 2024-2030
Together in turbines, a transmission is often utilized to boost speed of rotation from such low-speed rotors to a relatively high electric engine. A typical ratio is around 90:1, with a rate of 16.7 rpm input from the rotor to 1,500 rpm production again for generators.
Several multimegawatt wind generators do not have a transmission. The generator's rotor revolves at about the same velocity as that of the rotor blades in these so-called direct-drive devices.
This necessitates the use of a huge and costly generator. Many wind turbines in the industry fall somewhere in the middle, with gearbox proportions of around 30:1, eliminating the greatest speed stage in a standard gearbox.
Inside a wind generator, a transmission is frequently used to raise the rotor velocity from just a low-speed drive shaft to a high-speed axis.
The Wind turbine gearbox gearing is characterized by an intense cyclic stress owing to fluctuating, unpredictable wind pressure. As a result, the rate of failure of a transmission mechanism is claimed to be greater than for the other wind turbine bearings.
It is well recognized in the renewable energy industry that enhancing the dependability of gearbox designs is one of the most important factors in reducing wind farm maintenance and making electricity production comparable with energy sources.
The turbines, on the other hand, is a complicated multi-physics concept that integrates variable wind pressure, propeller blade aerodynamics, gear dynamics, an electrical generator, and control systems.
The improvement of the gearing platform's layout, incorporating reliability-based optimum design (RBDO) in light of dynamic loads and manufacturing concerns.
The market for wind turbines has been spurred by rising demand for sustainable energy. The majority of wind turbines in operation today employ a gearbox arrangement.
The global increase in the number of wind turbines has bolstered the wind turbine gearbox industry.
The many components of a wind generator all play an important role in optimizing the speed for optimum performance. As a result, a gearbox is essential in a wind turbine since it converts moderate rotor revolutions to high generating rotational velocity.
However, unlike traditional transmissions, a wind farm transmission does not swap gears. It instead keeps a single gear ratio between generators and rotor spinning.
The expanding markets of Africa and South America present a significant financial potential for the wind power industry.
As nations in these areas, such as Brazil, South Africa, Chile, and others, expand, there is a rise in demand for power, which is likely to generate market prospects for the wind turbine gearbox market in the next few years.
The primary drivers for this industry include factors such as falling wind energy costs and increased investment in the wind power sector.
Renewable power use has been boosted by the minimal cost of technologies and governmental backing from many nations in Europe, the Middle East, and Central America.
Emerging economies such as India and China also contribute significantly to the desire for renewable energy since their governments sponsor a variety of wind-related initiatives.
The Wind Turbine Gearbox Market can be segmented into following categories for further analysis.
The biggest disadvantage of a wind turbine gearbox industry is the higher incidence of breakdown of wind farm transmissions as a consequence of considerable fluctuation in wind currents and intensities.
Gearbox breakdowns frequently account for a substantial amount of the expense of wind farm protection and upkeep.
The incidence of gearbox breakdown is lower than the incidence of sensing, management system, as well as electromagnetic component breakdowns; nevertheless, the expenditures of transmission replacements are much higher.
Gearbox losses are anticipated to continue to be an issue for offshore wind utility companies as wind generators increase in number and capability, provided bearing axial fracturing can be replicated in the laboratory, computationally modelled, and contrasted to maximum energy plant outcomes.
Additionally, to address the growing instances of power supply shortages, it is expected to increase demand for wind energy in both the business and residential sectors.
Wind turbine drivetrains are subjected to significant transient loads throughout beginning, shut downs, enacted to protect, and grid connections.
Load instances that result in torque setbacks can be especially detrimental to bushings because rollers might skid even during abrupt displacement of the burdened region.
Sealing and lubricating systems must be dependable throughout a wide temperature range to avoid debris or humidity penetration, and they must operate well at all rotational speeds in the gearbox.
The ISO 6336 gearbox specification, for example, includes a well-established technique for assessing resistance to subterranean contacting breakdown and root canals breaking.
The components for the 18-MW device, which surpasses the recently launched 16-MW wind turbine made by other Chinese enterprises, have been disclosed by a subsidiary of the China State Shipbuilding Corp. (CSSC).
This turbine would be the largest and most powerful wind turbine ever built. A ceremony held in the industrial park in Dongying City, Shandong province, China, saw the new turbine launched by CSSC Haizhuang.
A permanent magnet generator and modularized medium-speed geared drive train will be powered by the 260-metre-diameter rotor of the 18-MW unit.
The corporate objective of the group company, which includes leadership in offshore wind equipment development, is something they must bear in mind. It reads, "leading the development of the industry, supporting national defence construction, and serving the national strategy.
The H260-18MW turbine has promising commercial prospects in high-speed wind and deep-sea regions, and it will significantly improve turbine capacity and efficiency while lowering the LCOE [levelized cost of electricity] of offshore wind farms.
In a press statement, CSSC Haizhuang stated that the H260-18.0 turbine's parts "demonstrated that [the manufacturer] has mastered the core technologies of high-rating offshore wind turbines and key components, leading the global offshore wind power industry to reach a new milestone.
The business, which has its headquarters in Chongqing, southwest China, said that its design is the most recent iteration of a 16-MW turbine and is "aspirant to the [offshore wind] turbine crown.
The new turbine, the H260-18.0, features 128-metre SuperBlade+ blades, according to CSSC Haizhuang's description. The sweeping area of the blades is 53,000 m2, or "equal to the area of seven football pitches," and they offer load-reducing pitch control.
The power train of the turbine was created by the group to meet the demands of a balanced load, flexible matching of the generator system, and a common blade model.
According to the group, the equipment is designed with a "holographic sensing system" for overall load reduction, control technology for variable pitch and torque, and is supported by multi-source online monitoring.
This reduces blade flutter, or the amount of aeroelastic instability brought on by the combination of vibration and pressure distributions on the blades, by 10%.
Every turbine's capacity to generate electricity is increased by 3% thanks to adaptive power boosting control technology.
In this circumstance, the wind sector concentrates on finding ways to reduce LCOE and enhance electricity output.
There is no denying that developing wind power at a larger scale and at a higher level of reliability will inevitably lead to lower costs.
The manufacturer said that the new design was created with "independent IP [intellectual property] rights, which improved the nationalisation rate of [the] turbine," and that its subsidiary firms provided 80% of the design's components, including the blade, gearbox, and generator.
World consumption for wind farm gearboxes in the offshore oil and gas industry is expanding rapidly. Because the wind direction in offshore installations is stronger, the offshore wind turbine gearboxes must be more scalable and reliable, which increases the cost.
As a result, the expansion of the offshore wind farms industry is anticipated to have a large beneficial effect.
Because of the constantly increasing platform in Asia-Pacific, as well as altering service plans of China and India financial institutions, the wind turbine gearbox maintenance and refurbishing sector is likely to present considerable development potential over the next decade.
ZF has been growing and improving its technological international presence in the global market focused on implementing new requirements at continual transformation requirements.
The ZF's sophisticated technological solutions contribute to the change in the global economic system that ensures that dependable, durable, and efficient products and systems save valuable resources.
In certain markets, renewable energy sources such as wind have already achieved grid parity.
ZF Wind Power and Vestas Wind Systems A/S (Vestas) form a gearbox service collaboration, integrating key expertise to provide unrivalled transmission management services throughout turbine manufacturers.
ZF's pioneering technical know-how in gearbox design, downtowner repairs, worldwide repair facilities, and spare parts inventory network complements Vestas' in-field operational, maintaining, and servicing experience with rotors and gears.
Winergy Group is moving through integration of latest technologies of the wind turbine gearboxes focusing on more analysis in the optimisation improvement. The Winergy's Digital Gearbox enhances the productivity of wind farm gears.
By digitising and evaluating their operational data, including real measured tension, these transmissions can be maintained with optimal torque and rotation rate.
As a consequence, either the maximum power or perhaps the serviceability of the transmission can be extended.
The generator operator understands where their gears are in the lifecycle of a product and may maximize the lifespan based on his demands. Along with this, The Hybrid Drive is Winergy's solution to the problem of further lowering energy producing costs.
The compact and lightweight design reduces the length of the propulsion system by much more than half, and the performance outperforms all those other solutions.
A New Design For Wind Turbine Gearbox Bearings For wind turbine gears, SKF DuraPro has a greater life rating, a longer endurance life, and better robustness.
New drivetrain designs are being created as a result of ongoing demand in the wind sector to lower the levelized cost of electricity (LCoE).
In order to reduce the weight uptower and the size of the largest transportable components, increasing gearbox torque density is necessary [1]. As a result, all parts, including roller bearings, must be further reduced in size without compromising field performance.
Gearboxes for modern wind turbines often have two or more planetary gear phases. The quantity of planet gears is increased to produce a larger torque density. By spreading the torque over more gear connections, the planet gear and ring gear diameter can be reduced.
These new design trends significantly reduced the size of the gearbox, but they also reduced the amount of room available for the bearing that supports the planets.
Hydrodynamic plain bearings can help to further minimize the size of planetary gears. However, depending on the working circumstances, rotational speed, and planet gear shape, such as width over diameter ratio, roller bearings are an affordable and dependable alternative that has a solid track record.
In order to boost reliability and robustness against common failure modes in the field, such as premature failures with white etching cracks (WECs), new bearing solutions for wind turbine gearboxes must take this into consideration. Increased bearing rating life is necessary for micropitting in order to permit bearing downsizing.
greater resistance to typical failure modes in wind gearboxes Due to the severe demands placed on rolling bearings in wind turbine gearboxes, the SKF Dura Pro was created.
This bearing combines a particular type of steel that is suitable for bearings with a thermochemical heat-treatment procedure that enriches the surface and subsurface of the bearing components.
The surface and subsurface enrichment produce a fine microstructure with fine precipitates and a certain amount of equally distributed stable retained austenite.
These characteristics, including resistance to surface-initiated failure and its spread, are all generally thought to improve a bearing steel's fatigue resistance.
The rolling contact fatigue resistance of this bearing is further increased by the enrichment, which also adds to compressive stresses and a higher surface hardness than currently employed in typical wind industry bearings.
| 1 | Market Segmentation |
| 2 | Scope of the report |
| 3 | Abbreviations |
| 4 | Research Methodology |
| 5 | Executive Summary |
| 6 | Introduction |
| 7 | Insights from Industry stakeholders |
| 8 | Cost breakdown of Product by sub-components and average profit margin |
| 9 | Disruptive innovation in the Industry |
| 10 | Technology trends in the Industry |
| 11 | Consumer trends in the industry |
| 12 | Recent Production Milestones |
| 13 | Component Manufacturing in US, EU and China |
| 14 | COVID-19 impact on overall market |
| 15 | COVID-19 impact on Production of components |
| 16 | COVID-19 impact on Point of sale |
| 17 | Market Segmentation, Dynamics and Forecast by Geography, 2024-2030 |
| 18 | Market Segmentation, Dynamics and Forecast by Product Type, 2024-2030 |
| 19 | Market Segmentation, Dynamics and Forecast by Application, 2024-2030 |
| 20 | Market Segmentation, Dynamics and Forecast by End use, 2024-2030 |
| 21 | Product installation rate by OEM, 2023 |
| 22 | Incline/Decline in Average B-2-B selling price in past 5 years |
| 23 | Competition from substitute products |
| 24 | Gross margin and average profitability of suppliers |
| 25 | New product development in past 12 months |
| 26 | M&A in past 12 months |
| 27 | Growth strategy of leading players |
| 28 | Market share of vendors, 2023 |
| 29 | Company Profiles |
| 30 | Unmet needs and opportunity for new suppliers |
| 31 | Conclusion |
| 32 | Appendix |
© 2017-2025 Mobility Foresights Pvt Ltd. All rights reserved.