As part of a wide-ranging sustainability focused collaboration, SKF and Chinese wind turbine manufacturer Goldwind have collaborated to build the first smart energy and carbon management system in SKF’s Dalian factory in China. The parties have also cooperated to use green electricity to lower the carbon emissions of SKF production sites across China.

The smart energy and carbon management system in SKF’s Dalian plant is based on energy consumption analysis, carbon emission analysis and equipment operation. It adopts advanced cloud platform technology, aiming to achieve transparency of energy consumption and carbon emissions, as well as timely alarm of equipment operation, energy consumption and identifying energy saving opportunities.

The system is in operation 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, enabling SKF’s Dalian factory to establish a comprehensive database covering energy consumption, efficiency and related carbon emissions. It also provides detailed energy consumption analysis and reliable energy saving diagnosis based on the collected data.

SKF and Goldwind have also collaborated to pilot green electricity procurement, and under the RE100 framework, increased the proportion of renewable energy use across SKF’s sites in China, with 18.23GWh renewable energy purchased to date in 2022.

Using their respective expertise in R&D, technology and successful application experience in many industries, SKF and Goldwind will continue to work together to carry out in-depth research and development of new wind turbine products. Areas of focus include design of the main shaft system, providing new bearing materials, exploring new processes and new structural design for the development of units and new products. SKF and Goldwind will also promote the application of intelligent rollers in test development, cooperate on bearing operation and maintenance diagnosis models and methods and work to strengthen digital collaboration to jointly promote green smart wind power to continuously optimise sustainability.

Rob Jenkinson, Net Zero Program Manager at SKF said:

“SKF continues to create sustainable and low-carbon products and solutions for the industry and has a solid goal to achieve net-zero emissions in production and operation by 2030 and net-zero emissions in the entire supply chain by 2050. We are closely aligned with Goldwind in our sustainability credentials and ambitions and close collaboration and partnerships of this kind are vital if the world is to achieve Net Zero in time to avoid disastrous climate change. By focusing on practical and rapid action, Goldwind and SKF are making a significant contribution to lowering greenhouse gas emissions right now and into the future.”

Hu Jiang, Executive Director and General Manager of Beijing Etechwin Electric Co. Ltd (wholly owned subsidiary of Goldwind) stated: “Goldwind is sparing no effort to help its partners step towards a sustainable future.  We are delighted that we have achieved several important milestones with SKF and took a big step towards the realisation of our carbon neutral goal in manufacturing. Goldwind has embarked on a journey of carbon neutrality by securing 100% green electricity use among major suppliers by 2025 and achieving 100% recycling of Goldwind’s products by 2040. We will be dedicated to our original aspirations and continue to fulfill our mission of innovating for a brighter tomorrow.”

In 2021, with technical support of Swedish Environmental Research Institute IVL, Goldwind‘s GW155-4.5 and GW136-4.2 wind turbines using SKF’s bearings designed and produced to reduce environmental impact achieved China’s first Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) certification for wind turbines.