Green power from Mallorca windmills and Audi electric cars
The Audi employee Francisco Trigueros Morera de la Vall had the idea of obtaining green energy from Mallorcan windmills and scrapped electric motors. This was the birth of “Project Microgrid.” For this innovative approach, Trigueros and a cross-divisional team received the “Green Product Award” in May 2025 in the “Workspace” category.
What do traditional windmills on the popular holiday island of Mallorca have to do with electric Audi e-tron models? Seemingly nothing. Or maybe quite a lot, if you ask Francisco Trigueros Morera de la Vall, head of the innovation project “Microgrid.” While on vacation on Mallorca, he looked at the abandoned windmills and wondered: “Why not use them to generate wind power locally, which – subject to grid connection, power output and regulatory requirements – could also be made available for charging electric vehicles?”
Three years after this first idea, Trigueros and his colleagues inaugurated the first “Microgrid” windmill – wonderfully named “Son España” – in the village of Son Ferrol in April 2022. It originated from 1925 and was the first to be equipped with metal rotor blades.
The largest of the Balearic Islands is known for its thousands of windmills whose origins date back to the 14th century. They initially served as grain mills, then as groundwater pumps at the beginning of the 20th century, but have largely fallen out of use today.
And this is exactly where the Spaniard comes in. “We’re using both the windmills and the used electric motors from the Audi e-tron family for power generation,” Trigueros says, explaining his idea for reusing an electric motor in a wind energy application, which he presented to the Audi Innovation Management department.
Green energy from windmills sponsored by Audi’s Innovation Management department
But how can the generation of Mallorcan wind energy with used Audi electric motors be capitalized on? “Answering that was definitely a challenge,” Trigueros says, looking back. The solution was for the Spanish hotel chain Meliá to become the brand’s cooperation partner and rent several Audi e-tron models to interested vacationers for drives around Mallorca. In the first quarter of 2026, 11 vehicles were in Spain, two of which on Mallorca.
According to Trigueros, locally emission-free electric cars are the ideal mode of transport on Mallorca, as they produce no tailpipe emissions during operation on the island. At the same time, he’s convinced that a relaxed vacation is the perfect time to experience electric mobility. “If just five percent of all hotel customers were to buy an Audi e-tron model, the project would pay off for Audi,” the project manager proudly calculates.
Regenerative breaking: a key technology
Working together with colleagues, he developed the first prototype for generating renewable energy. A recycled electric motor from an Audi e-tron test vehicle was installed in a 220-kilogram, three-meter-long, 1.6-meter-wide, one-meter-tall box on the back side of the wind turbine. It is connected to the rotating windmill by a gear drive.
“This can be compared with vehicle operation,” Trigueros explains. “Just like when you drive over Mallorcan hills and recover energy when going downhill, the motor here is in permanent recuperation mode.” Depending on the size of the windmill, the prototype is capable of generating up to 22 MWh of electricity annually – depending on location, wind profile, availability and efficiency. This is theoretically equivalent to approximately 220 charging sessions of 95 kWh each, excluding individual charging losses.
Green Product Award for the project
The electric motors for the windmills have been supplied by Audi's powertrain remanufacturing department since 2022. The production department supports Trigueros and his colleagues in a collaborative effort. At the same time, the remanufacturing of the electric motors can be perfectly integrated into the ergonomic workplace structure for employees with reduced performance.
For this innovative approach, the cross-divisional team received the “Green Product Award” of White Lobster GmbH & Co. KG in May 2025 in the “Workspace” category among the “established companies.” Green Future Club gUG operates as a legally independent and autonomous assessment and certification body.
Audi relies on second life
According to Audi’s second-life philosophy, components should only be recycled if they are no longer suitable for use. The same principle is being applied to the windmills: The batteries used are still functional, but no longer meet the requirements of their original application. Using them as energy storage systems instead is preferable to recycling them prematurely. Only when the batteries no longer have a second-use application like this are they broken down into their individual raw materials using modern recycling concepts before ultimately being used in new batteries.Local partners for a local project
Sustainability was also crucial in the modification of the windmill. It was converted on the island by an external local service provider in a workshop rented specifically for that purpose. “It’s important to us to integrate partners in the project who work locally and don’t have to fly to the island specifically for the project,” Trigueros says.
Windmill association in Mallorca honors "Project M"
Trigueros explains that “Son España” has been connected to Mallorca’s power grid, “but we’ve also started exploring more ways the electricity could be used.”
For instance, the renewable energy could be used for hydrogen production through electrolysis or for specific applications such as stationary charging points – subject to technical and regulatory requirements. Fluctuations in the power grid could also be balanced out with the green energy.However, use of the wind energy also depends on how the project to repurpose an electric motor for a wind power application develops going forward: While there are currently no plans to scale up the project, the principle could certainly be applied on other islands as well,” Trigueros says confidently.