The European project, EDWIM (Energy Dense Wind powertrains through sustaina-ble Innovative Manufacturing), officially started on 1 June 2026. With over €7 million in funding and a duration of 48 months, the project aims to improve the manufacturing of two of the most critical elements of modern wind turbines: gearbox ring gears and generator stators. To achieve this, it will combine advanced manufacturing technologies, digitalisation, and sustainable industrial innovation.
Funded by the EU under the Horizon Europe programme and managed by the European Climate, Infrastructure, and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA), the EDWIM consortium is co-ordinated by IKERLAN and comprises Flender (and the affiliated entity Flender Finland Oy), EMA Indutec, Fraunhofer, Sidenor (and the affiliated entity Sidenor I+D), WP Generator GmbH, Flender D.O.O. Subotica, Heinrich Schümann, ISOVOLTA, LKS Next, RINA Consulting, and Zabala Innovation.
During the kick-off meeting, held in mid-June at IKERLAN's facilities in Mondragón, Spain, the consortium defined the roadmap for the next four years and laid the foundations that will guide the development of new manufacturing solutions for key wind turbine components.
The project comes at a pivotal moment for the European wind industry. As Europe advances towards its climate and energy objectives, the wind energy sector continues to evolve, seeking new ways to deliver reliable, sustainable, and cost-effective technologies while strengthening the competitiveness of the European manufacturing base.
In this context, EDWIM aims to develop and demonstrate innovative manufacturing technologies for gearbox ring gears and generator stators, two critical components that play a decisive role in the reliability, efficiency, and sustainability of modern wind turbines. By combining advances in processes, materials, digitalisation, and AI-enabled optimisation, the project consortium will work to reduce material waste and energy consumption while enhancing component quality, durability, and overall performance.
“We have a great challenge ahead and an outstanding team to tackle it. Our ambition is to manufacture better wind turbine components through more sustainable and worker-friendly production processes. We are confident that EDWIM will help make the European wind industry more competitive and attractive,” said Unai Segurajauregi (IKERLAN), EDWIM co-ordinator.
Digitalisation lies at the core of EDWIM’s manufacturing innovation strategy. The project will develop an advanced digital framework integrating simulation technologies, intelligent decision-support systems and AI-enabled optimisation tools to support process design, monitoring, and manufacturing performance assessment.
By enabling the virtual design, optimisation, and validation of manufacturing strategies before physical implementation, this framework will help reduce development times, minimise reliance on trial-and-error approaches and improve efficiency, product quality, and resource use.
Through these digital innovations, EDWIM seeks to contribute to a more competitive, resilient, and sustainable European wind energy value chain while supporting the wider industrial adoption of next-generation manufacturing technologies.
The solutions developed throughout the project will be transferred to real manufacturing settings, where their performance, reliability, and industrial viability will be assessed under operational conditions.
To achieve this, two industrial pilots will be implemented to demonstrate and EDWIM’s solutions under real industrial conditions. The first pilot will focus on the manufacturing of gearbox ring gears, while the second will address the production of generator stators.
“EDWIM enables us to develop induction hardening for ring gears up to high TRL to ensure reliability of the ring gears and to utilise AI to plan and operate induction hardening processes to achieve highest productivity possible. This will decrease CAPEX for wind turbine gearboxes and at the same time reduce emissions in our production processes,” added André Meis (FLENDER), Gearbox Pilot Leader.
“The wind industry is continuously striving to increase power density while reducing the material required for each generator. Within EDWIM, we will focus on the heart of the generator – the insulation system – and complement these technical and environmental improvements with AI-based quality assurance, making generators more efficient, more reliable, and ultimately contributing to lower levelized cost of energy,” concluded Kevin Bodensiek (WP Generator), Generator Pilot Leader.
These demonstrators will enable partners to evaluate the performance and industrial viability of the developed solutions while ensuring they respond to the practical needs of manufacturers. By bridging the gap between research and industrial application, EDWIM aims to pave the way for the wider adoption of more efficient, sustainable, and competitive manufacturing technologies across Europe’s wind energy value chain.
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