The winds of change
Throughout the world, wind turbines are gathering momentum. Wind power is a green and growing energy sector.
On a lonely plateau on Germany’s Swabian Alb, on the Altamount Pass an hours drive southeast of San Francisco, and on a verdant hillside near Dhule, India, wind turbines stand like sentries in the struggle to produce electricity while protecting the environment.
The demand for wind energy is rising worldwide. The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) reported global growth of 32 percent in the industry in 2006 following a record 41-percent growth in 2005.
Significantly, the share of growth represented by Europe declined from 75 percent to 50 percent of the total, as Asia experienced the strongest increase in installed capacity and the US alone was the country with highest number of new wind turbines.
“Because climate change and securing energy supply are high on the political agendas of the world’s governments, wind energy has already become a mainstream energy source in countries throughout the world,” said Arthouros Zervos, Chairman of the GWEC, in a report from February 2007.
Trelleborg Sealing Solutions has experienced considerable growth in demand for wind turbine parts in the past number of decades.
“In Germany, our sales to wind turbine manufacturers have risen more than tenfold since the late 1980s, and at the moment, they are increasing by at least 15 percent a year,” says Franz-Josef Menne, Area Sales Manager for Mobile Hydraulics and Marine, Trelleborg Sealing Solutions, Germany.
In the area of custom solutions for pitch cylinders, which adjust the angle of the blades in the wind turbine for maximum efficiency, Trelleborg leads the market. In this area, the company has already developed the third generation of systems since 2002 for one of its main customers.
The sealing components that Trelleborg supplies for the pitch cylinders play a key role in ensuring that the turbines run safely and reliably. Moreover, the components are subject to stringent quality requirements and control. The pitch-control cylinders rotate 10 to 20 times per minute and are subject to vibration forces resulting from high wind speeds and rotation.
“If the seals don’t hold up, the turbine comes to a standstill,” says Menne.
With these kinds of requirements, Trelleborg offers a superior choice for manufacturers of wind turbines worldwide.
“Globally, we have the best seal geometry and consistently supply the optimal materials – not every manufacturer can run simulations and create tailor-made materials for the customer,” says Sandra Wolff, Manager for Mobile Hydraulics and Marine, Trelleborg Sealing Solutions, Germany. “We can conduct these activities in research and development centers in Europe, the US and Asia.”
This ability to meet the particular needs of individual customers has become more important over time, as customized solutions have risen as a proportion of overall sales.
“At present,” says Menne, “custom solutions represent about 70 percent of sales to Trelleborg Sealing Solutions’ largest customer.”
Menne sees potential for further growth in the US and Asia, including China, which in 2006, passed a renewable energy law and increased installed wind-energy capacity by 70 percent, according to the GWEC. As Menne points out, wind energy is not only environmentally sound, but for isolated villages in developing countries, it offers an alternative to building connections to a far-off power grid.
Furthermore, in well-developed wind-energy markets, such as Germany and Spain, improvements to existing wind-power parks also offer new opportunities for Trelleborg. The “re-powering” of older wind parks with more efficient components, and the planned introduction of monitoring systems to warn operators when sealing components are wearing out promise to make these protectors of the environment more economically attractive than ever before.
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