Estonian student team Windle has won the international World KidWind Challenge in the United States, bringing home a world champion title in youth wind energy engineering.

This is a remarkable achievement not only for Team Windle, but also for Estonian youth engineering, green technology and the future of the energy sector.

Windle’s journey to the world title started in Estonia. In January, the first Enerhack KidWind Challenge in Estonia was held at TalTech – Tallinn University of Technology. The competition was organised by Enerhack in cooperation with TalTech and the Estonian Wind Power Association.

Over several months, middle and high school student teams from across Estonia designed and built real working wind turbines with the support of mentors and engineers.

As the winner of the Estonian competition, Team Windle earned the opportunity to represent Estonia at the international KidWind World Championship in the United States. They have now returned as world champions.

This means that students from Estonia — a small country with a population of just 1.3 million — built a wind turbine that proved to be the best in the world.

The experience confirmed once again that Estonia has incredibly talented, smart and capable young people. Already during the Estonian competition, several technical solutions and presentations genuinely surprised experienced engineers and energy sector leaders.

One of the most important lessons from the KidWind Challenge is simple: interest in engineering, technology and energy must start early. If we want more engineers, innovators and energy experts in the future, we need to inspire school students today.

Estonia — and Europe more broadly — will need a new generation of engineers more than ever in the coming decades. We sincerely hope that many of the students who took part in KidWind will continue their journey at TalTech or in other engineering and technology-related fields.

A huge thank you to all mentors, teachers, supporters, TalTech – Tallinn University of Technology, the Estonian Wind Power Association, Enerhack and the international KidWind Project team for making this possible.

And the good news is: KidWind is now becoming an annual competition in Estonia. Registration for the 2026/2027 season opens this summer.

More information:
https://lnkd.in/dQgm9pXk