The European Tribune is a forum for thoughtful dialogue of European and international issues. You are invited to post comments and your own articles.
Please REGISTER to post.
And the major bearings, primarily for main shaft and to a lesser extent gearbox and yaw bearings, are sourced largely to two companies of which windpower is about two percent of their business. No help there. This is the primary bottleneck in today's industry.
Do you mean:
http://www.earthscan.co.uk/news/printablearticle.asp?UAN=431&noimages=1
About six months after acquiring Bonus, Siemens strengthened its hold on the wind technology hardware market when it bought Flender Holding GmbH.8 This is the parent company of the leading wind turbine drive systems supplier Winergy. The latter controls around 40% of the world market for wind turbine gearboxes, with among its main clients Siemens Wind Power, REpower, Suzlon, Nordex, Ecotècnia,Turbowinds and, most likely, GE and Vestas. However, it was the Siemens Automation
?
Siemens stated upon the purchase that they were interested in the parent, and that they would not interfere with the core business. I wouldn't want my gearbox load data in the hands of the competition, however. But even they source elsewhere as well.
Many turbine manufacturers source gearboxes from different competing suppliers. Siemens itself sources from Hansen. Suzlon didn't source from the company it bought, Hansen, rather Winergy and the small German company Jahnel Kestermann, though that will begin to change soon. Nordex has three suppliers including a subsidiary of Bosche Rexroth for their new differential gearbox. Vestas sources from four companies, including Finnish Moventus. Gamesa sources from five companies, as does GE, though GE is slowly increasing production at another GE subsidiary. REpower sources from three companies, and a fourth, RENK (new to the industry) provides only for the giant 5M.
New production capacity is beginning to come online in China and India (where else?), and almost everyone in Europe is adding capacity.
But nearly all large gears (main shaft) come from FAG or SKF. And there's the rub. "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
by Frank Schnittger - Sep 17
by Frank Schnittger - Sep 10 3 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Sep 1 6 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Sep 3 32 comments
by Oui - Sep 6 3 comments
by gmoke - Aug 25 1 comment
by Oui - Sep 18
by Oui - Sep 1713 comments
by Oui - Sep 154 comments
by Oui - Sep 151 comment
by Oui - Sep 1315 comments
by Oui - Sep 13
by Oui - Sep 124 comments
by Oui - Sep 1010 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Sep 103 comments
by Oui - Sep 10
by Oui - Sep 92 comments
by Oui - Sep 84 comments
by Oui - Sep 715 comments
by Oui - Sep 72 comments
by Oui - Sep 63 comments
by Oui - Sep 54 comments
by gmoke - Sep 5