Design Study of Fully Superconducting Wind Turbine Generators

Abstract

In this paper, two fully superconducting generators employing MgB <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> armature winding, with YBCO and MgB <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> field winding respectively, are presented and analyzed. The ac loss in armature winding is estimated, and a simple comparative study is carried out. The results show that both electromagnetic designs for fully superconducting generators are promising with respect to the power density. However, the cost of removing ac loss in armature winding is as high as $900 000. It is also noted that with the current price of YBCO tape, the generator employing MgB 2 field winding would have lower cost.