Wind turbine generators using superconducting coils and bulks

Abstract

Wind power generation has been expected as a promising clean energy source in the world. Recently, generation capacity produced by wind power generators has been growing with increasing size of windmills. However, huge nacelles result in extreme load for towers supporting them. We have focused on a wind power generator using superconducting wires and superconducting bulks to solve the problem. Large currents may flow through superconducting wires with zero DC resistance. Superconducting bulks are magnetic shielding materials. These enable reduction of size and weight of nacelles. In addition, large generators using these materials can generate an output power of 10 MW with very large power densities. This paper describes calculation of generated magnetic field and power generation characteristics using three-dimensional finite element method (FEM) analysis of the generators using high temperature superconducting coils and bulks.