Blades for wind turbines stored at a logistics depot in Tianjin, China. (Qilai Shen/Bloomberg)
key takeaways:
- DHL said growing amounts of clean energy equipment, including giant wind turbines and lithium-ion batteries, are becoming increasingly difficult to transport due to their size, complexity and safety risks.
- The challenge matters because DHL expects its energy logistics revenues to reach €3 billion by 2030 due to increasing demand for larger turbines and hazardous batteries.
- DHL is expanding specialized infrastructure, including a European battery hub and custom containers, to handle complex shipments as projects in remote areas grow.
Global efforts to move away from fossil fuels are facing a new challenge: Clean energy devices are becoming more complex, dangerous and too large to easily transport.
The complexity of moving huge wind turbine components or batteries, which carry the risk of fire, is a challenge for a new energy business Logistics giant DHL Group expects to grow revenues from about 600 million euros last year to 3 billion euros ($3.5 billion) by 2030, according to CEO Tobias Mayer.
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“Large wind turbines now have blades of astonishing dimensions,” the mayor told reporters in a video briefing from Amsterdam on June 11. “These create high wind loads for large cargo ships, requiring stacking and special rigs for transport, as they are also quite fragile.”
Dongfang Electric Corp. last year began production of a 26-megawatt wind turbine with blades measuring 502 feet, while Ming Yang Smart Energy Group is working on a giant, two-headed 50-megawatt model. To increase sales in markets with low wind speeds, manufacturers are developing giant rotors, which capture more energy – although installing super-sized equipment usually requires special trucks and wide roads.
As demand for energy flexibility increases, DHL Group has promoted new energy logistics. https://t.co/VGPF0PT6jc
– DHL Group (@DHLGlobal) 11 June 2026
The growing demand for batteries, including the growing stationary storage sector, is boosting the export of lithium-ion batteries. Storage deployment is projected to grow 17-fold from 223 gigawatts in 2025 to 3.8 terawatts by 2050, BloombergNEF said in its annual New Energy Outlook published last month.
Yet moving components can be logistically complex: any unit weighing more than 35 kilograms (77.2 lb) is classified as dangerous goods due to potential fire risks. Meyer said the threat stems from a fragmented web of international aviation regulations, making air transportation of large batteries the industry’s “biggest gap.”
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DHL is setting up a new European battery hub in Holtum, the Netherlands, to handle the growing volume of components needed for electric vehicles and energy storage, and launching other specialized handling hubs from India to Peru. The company is also deploying custom insulated containers for the batteries to protect them from thermal shock, rain and cross-contamination during shipping.
Oscar de Bock, CEO of DHL Global Forwarding, a unit specializing in air and sea freight, said the need for specialized infrastructure is increasing as new green projects are being built in remote areas away from established trade routes. “Some of this stuff is extremely complex,” he said.
DHL Supply Chain is ranked 12th in Transportation Topics’ Top 100 list of the largest logistics companies in North America and TT is ranked 5th in the Top 50 Global Freight Forwarding list.
