A Challenging Project
GE Global Research announced recently that it has been awarded a two-year, $3 million project by the U.S. Department of Energy, to develop a superconducting wind turbine generator that could support large-scale wind applications in the range of 15MW and with main scope to significantly reduce the cost of wind energy, improve power scalability and optimize energy plants reliability.
According to GE researchers, a superconducting wind turbine generator should be more power dense and more efficient than many of the other tradinional technologies and techniques that are currently being used in the wind energy engineering industry. Yet, would effectively reduce our dependence on rare-earth imports and thus, should introduce an even more environmental friendly power production method. Implementing superconducting technologies in wind energy industry reduces weight by virtue of the high magnetic fields that can be created by the superconducting field winding. Super-conductors can also be used to eliminate the massive gearbox, typically the component with the highest maintenance costs in conventional wind turbines. Furthermore, they also propose to use a novel rotating armature concept for their prototype machine, which apparently allows them to employ the proven cryogenic technologies already being developed and used by the healthcare industry (Magnetic Resonance Imaging machines).
However, the installation procedures of a superconducting generator operating at 4.2K (-269℃) on top of a turbine tower is not a simple task. Moreover, to convince the conservative wind power market that super-conductivity methods are cost-effective and technologically efficient is also a challenging part of the process. Taking into account all the essential aspects of electric conversion, integration, manufacturability and operability could assist in bridging the gap between energy generation, transportation and storage.
For the offshore wind energy installations, the proposed generator including the cryogenic cooling equipment and associated ancillary equipment, should be designed in such a way that the overal structure will withstand the harsh marine environment. Bearing in mind that offshore wind farms are really only accessible once a year, weather permitting, such machines have to be ultra-reliable. GE has designed and built lab scale superconducting machines in the recent years. The knowledge and experience achieved from their latest development, gives an excellent opportunity to get back into this field and tackle some of the key challenges to introducing superconducting technology into the industrial and commercial world.
In more simplistic termns, superconductivity in wind energy industry aims to:| 1 | Reduce turbine head mass, size and cost of offshore wind turbines |
| 2 | Reduce O&M and transportation costs and increase turbine generator longevity |
| 3 | Increase the reliability and efficiency of high power wind turbines |
| 4 | Introduce innovative methodologies to the transmission and storage procedures |
Tecnalia Research & Innovation has spent 4 years developing the technology and has patented the concept.
Now it has assembled a top-class European consortium from seven countries.
They include industrial partners Acciona Wind Power, a wind turbine manufacturer; ACCIONA Energia, an energy company; Columbus Superconductors, a SME superconducting wire developer; Oerlikon-Leybold Vacuum (OLV), a cryogenic systems supplier; and D2M Engineering, an offshore engineering company.
The Institute of Electrical Engineering, Slovak Academy of Sciences, with experience in superconductivity; the University of Southampton; and the Karlsruher Institut Technologie in Germany are the project’s research partners.
The main outcome of the project will be a superconducting generator able to be scaled in wind turbines up to power levels of 10 MW and beyond.
