VOITH HYDRO HOLDING GMBH & CO KG

Their core work

Voith Hydro is one of the world's leading manufacturers of hydraulic machinery for hydropower plants — turbines (Francis, Kaplan, Pelton), generators, automation and control systems, and related services. In H2020 research, they contribute industrial-scale engineering expertise and real operational knowledge of hydropower assets, bringing projects from laboratory concepts into machinery that runs in actual power plants. Their participation spans both the ecological integration of hydropower infrastructure (fish passage, downstream migration) and the technical optimization of existing hydro assets for modern grid services. As a large industrial company, they act as the bridge between academic research and physical deployment of hydropower technology.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their earlier H2020 work (FIThydro, starting 2016), Voith Hydro's research focus was essentially the physical technology of hydropower itself — turbine design adapted for ecological coexistence with fish populations. By 2019, with XFLEX HYDRO, the focus shifted decisively toward the role of hydropower within the broader energy system: flexibility, balancing power, variable speed drives, and digitalisation of plant operations. This mirrors an industry-wide shift from treating hydro as a baseload asset to repositioning it as a fast-response flexibility resource critical for integrating intermittent renewables.

Voith Hydro is clearly moving toward making existing hydro fleets smarter and more grid-responsive — future collaborations with them fit best around flexibility markets, digital twins for hydro assets, predictive maintenance, and energy system integration rather than new-build turbine development.

How they like to work

Voith Hydro participates exclusively as a consortium partner — they have never led an H2020 project as coordinator. This is typical of large industrial companies that bring validated manufacturing and operational expertise to research consortia rather than driving the scientific agenda themselves. With 45 unique partners across 10 countries from just two projects, they engage in large multi-partner consortia, which suggests they are comfortable operating in complex multi-stakeholder environments and are valued for their industrial grounding rather than research leadership.

Voith Hydro has built a broad European network of 45 unique consortium partners across 10 countries through only two projects — reflecting the large, multi-partner nature of both FIThydro and XFLEX HYDRO. Their collaboration footprint spans beyond Germany into hydropower-active countries across central and western Europe.

What sets them apart

Voith Hydro occupies a rare position in H2020 hydropower research: they are an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) with direct access to installed turbine fleets in operating power plants, which makes them essential for any project that needs real-world testing or industrial validation rather than lab simulation. Unlike universities or research institutes, they can translate a research finding directly into a product specification or a firmware update for deployed machinery. For consortium builders, they represent the commercial pathway — if Voith Hydro is in the project, the technology has a plausible route to market through their global customer base of hydropower operators.

Highlights from their portfolio

• XFLEX HYDRO
  The largest of their two projects by far (EUR 1,087,275 EC funding, 2019–2024), directly addressing hydropower's strategic role in balancing Europe's renewable-heavy grid through variable-speed technology and digitalisation.
• FIThydro
  A rare cross-sector project combining industrial turbine engineering with ecological science to develop fish-friendly hydropower technologies — demonstrating Voith's willingness to engage with environmental constraints on their core product.