Rolling bearings for the wind turbine: How the energy transition benefits the old steel world – economy

Climate protection and heavy industry, that sounds like hostility. But because wind turbines need heavy piles and roller bearings made of steel, the two worlds meet.

If you will, Winfried Schulte is Lord of the Rings at Thyssenkrupp. When night falls in Westphalia and the streets are clear, heavy trucks drive meter-sized rings from Dortmund to the east. In the city in the Ruhr area, Thyssenkrupp rolled the rings out of warm steel. A good 70 kilometers further, in Lippstadt, Schulte’s company Rothe Erde assembles them with balls or rollers to make rolling bearings. However, not to any ball bearings like those found in every roller skate. No, we are talking about bearings a few meters in diameter.