Ground Testing of the World's First MW-Class Direct-Drive Superconducting Wind Turbine Generator

TLDR

The EU‑funded EcoSwing project develops the world’s first full‑scale direct‑drive high‑temperature superconducting wind turbine generator. This study focuses on ground testing of the EcoSwing HTS generator to validate its cryogenic design and electromagnetic performance. The generator was ground‑tested at Fraunhofer IWES’s Dynamic Nacelle Testing Laboratory before turbine installation, providing experimental validation of its design. Ground tests achieved partial power output of up to 1 MW at 14.5 rpm despite a defective HTS coil, with auxiliary systems performing as or better than expected, confirming the generator’s design and informing subsequent turbine deployment.

Abstract

The EU-funded EcoSwing project addresses the world's first full-scale direct-drive (DD) high temperature superconducting (HTS) wind turbine generator. Before the generator was installed on a commercial wind turbine, the generator had been tested on the ground at the Dynamic Nacelle Testing Laboratory (DyNaLab) in Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems (IWES), serving as an experimental validation of the generator design. This article is centered on the ground testing of the EcoSwing HTS generator, which includes corresponding tests for validating the generator's cryogenic design and electromagnetic performance. Despite one HTS coil with a defect limiting the operating current significantly, partial power production up to 1 MW at 14.5 rpm was reached. The critical auxiliary systems, i.e., vacuum system and rotary helium coupling, behaved as expected or even better than anticipated. The work reported in the article successfully validates the generator design, and also provides firsthand information prior to installing and testing the HTS generator on the wind turbine.