Reliability comparison of direct‐drive and geared‐drive wind turbine concepts

Abstract

Abstract This paper proposes for wind turbines (WTs) an analytical reliability method, used on other engineering systems, to compare the reliability of different turbine concepts. The main focus of the paper is to compare the reliability of geared generator and direct‐drive concept WTs. Modification methods are also recommended for improving the availability of WTs and geared generator concept incorporating doubly fed induction generator. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.