Superconducting wind turbine passes first test

A Denmark-based consortium called EcoSwing has designed, developed and manufactured a full-size superconducting generator for a 3.6 MW wind turbine, and subjected it to its first trial in which, as they report in the journal Superconductor Science and Technology, it exceeded expectations. The team conducting the test suggests that superconducting turbines might help wind energy keeping pace with the demand for increasing unit power levels.

EcoSwing includes Envision Energy of Denmark, Eco 5 of Germany, Jeumont Electric of France, Delta Energy Systems, THEVA, Sumitomo, DNV, the Fraunhofer Institute and the University of Twente in the Netherlands.

Offshore wind turbines are becoming more popular, as they are located out of sight and sound range of populations. It is logical to make the turbines as large as possible to minimise the number of units needed in a wind farm. This makes power takeoff simpler and also reduces the burden of maintenance. However, as Anne Bergen of the University of Twente, corresponding author of the EcoSwing paper, points out, current technology makes the trend for higher unit power levels problematic. The current state-of-the-art is permanent magnet-based direct drive generators (PM-DD), but this requires significant weight reduction to make multiple unit installations practical. Another option is pseudo-magnetic direct-drive (PDD) machines, integrating magnetic gearing and generators, but these can be expensive and highly complex to produce, she adds.