Bearings are closely related to the fast-growing solar industry (Timken)

Timken, a global leader in the engineering bearing and transmission products industry, has provided kinetic energy for its solar industry customers to achieve industry-leading growth rates in the past three years.

Timken acquired Cone Drive in 2018 to enter the solar market. Under the leadership of Timken, ConeDrive has continued to show strong momentum in collaboration with the world's leading solar original equipment manufacturers (OEM). In the past three years (1), ConeDrive has tripled the revenue of the solar energy business, surpassing the average growth rate of this market with high profits. In 2020, the company's solar business revenue exceeded 100 million U.S. dollars. As the market's demand for solar energy continues to grow, Timken expects to maintain a double-digit revenue growth rate in this segment in the next 3-5 years.

Carl D. Rapp, vice president of the Timken, said: "Our team has established a good reputation among solar OEMs in the early days for quality and reliability, and has formed a good momentum of development that continues to this day. As a trustworthy company Our technology partners, we work with the world’s top-scale manufacturers to develop customized solutions for each solar installation project one by one. Our expertise in application engineering and innovative solutions have unique competitive advantages."

The Cone Drive high-precision motion control system provides tracking and positioning functions for photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar (CSP) applications. These engineered products can improve stability and help the system cope with higher torque loads through low recoil and anti-backdrive functions, which are very important features for solar applications. All ConeDrive facilities have passed ISO certification, and the manufacturing process of its solar products uses strict quality control.

Since 2018, Timken has played an important role in more than one-third of global large-scale solar projects (2), such as Al Maktoum Solar Park in Dubai. The park’s power tower uses Cone Drive’s high-precision solar tracking technology. This solar park uses concentrating solar technology to generate 600 MW of clean energy, and photovoltaic technology can provide an additional 2200 MW of power generation capacity. Earlier this year, Chinese solar tracking system OEM CITIC Bo signed a multi-million dollar contract with Cone Drive to provide a custom-designed rotary drive system for a power project in Jiangxi, China.

Timken has been investing heavily in research and development, and has established strong manufacturing, engineering and testing systems in the United States and China, aiming to strengthen its leadership in the solar field. The company has also made targeted investments to increase production capacity, expand product range, and increase the productivity of high-precision motion control systems in the solar industry. In 2020, renewable energy, including wind and solar energy, will become Timken’s largest single terminal market, accounting for 12% of the company’s total sales.