Wind Turbine Bearings: Day 1 - 27/08/2025

10:00 - 10:15 Chairperson’s opening

10:15 - 10:45 Keynote: Scalability limits for Wind turbine architecture, and its affection to main bearings.

Daniel Barriopedro - Product Architecture Head, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy
  • Main upscaling limitations.
  • Different solutions adopted by WTG OEMS to overcome those limitations.
  • Forecasted evolution of main components and bearings sizes (focused on Geared WTGs).
  • Potential affections to bearings OEMS.
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Daniel Barriopedro

Product Architecture Head
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy

10:45 - 11:15 Life extension and load density increase of Wind Turbine bearings

Klaus Sausele - Sector Manager Wind Energy, NSK Deutschland GmbH


• Long life/high load density bearing materials, treatments and design

• Gearbox bearing applications

• Main shaft bearings

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Klaus Sausele

Sector Manager Wind Energy
NSK Deutschland GmbH

11:15 - 12:00 Refreshment Break and Networking

12:00 - 12:30 The Next Generation of Wind Turbines: The Role of Hydrodynamic Journal Bearings in The Joule Challenge

  • The Joule Challenge project, what is it? 
  • Main bearing configurations for 20MW and beyond 
  • Comparison at Scale – How hydrodynamic journal bearings compare to rolling element bearings at the large sizes required for next generation wind turbines 
  • Cost analysis of hydrodynamic journal main bearings including maintenance and  replacement cost, and their economic impact
  • The SJB™ can be integrated within the design space of existing roller bearing solutions. This can extend the lifecycle of existing products or renewed life for older turbines. 
  • Less number of components reduce failure probabilities and equally distributed load on rotating segment improve the lifetime. 
  • The bearing materials have been tested thoroughly in wind turbine gearboxes for several years.
  • The system can be design more compact or can increases the power density in existing space.
  • Lower noise production and dampening due to hydrodynamic lubrication
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Dr. Johannes Hölzl

Head of Systems Engineering Wind Applications
Miba Gleitlager GmbH

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Patrick Laubichler

System Engineer Wind Applications
Miba Gleitlager Austria GmbH

13:00 - 14:30 Networking Lunch

14:30 - 15:00 Optimisation and validation of pin profiling for sliding planet gear bearings

Dr. Peter Decker - NA, COB Bearings Germany GMBH

• Hydrodynamic Simulation

• Crowning Optimisation

• Validation

• Cladded Shafts

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Dr. Peter Decker

NA
COB Bearings Germany GMBH

15:00 - 15:30 Reserved for Goldwind


15:30 - 16:30 Refreshment Break and Networking

  • Mechanisms of grease aging, including oil separation, thickener degradation, and thermo￾oxidation
  • Use of diagnostic tools such as IR (Infrared Spectroscopy), AES (Atomic Emission Spectroscopy), or NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) for in-depth lubricant analysis and bearing health assessment
  • Influence of load and tribological subsystems on specific mechanisms of grease aging
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Dr.-Ing. Ricardo Lühe

Forschungs- und Entwicklungsingenieur
Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg

17:00 - 17:15 Chairperson’s closing remarks

19:00 - 19:00 Evening Get-Together

Join us for an informal evening get together at Emma am See where some refreshing drinks and a nice barbecue buffet will be waiting for you! You are not only visiting an architecturally award-winning monument, but meeting your peers in a relaxed atmosphere, exchanging business cards. and reviewing the first conference day.