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Optimization and Comparison of Modern Offshore Wind Turbine Generators Using GeneratorSE 2.0

Conference ·
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As the offshore wind industry keeps growing at a rapid pace, developers are bracing themselves for a huge demand in critical rare earth metals which will threaten an already vulnerable supply chain. The wind energy industry is addressing this problem by investing in modern generator technologies that employ magnets with reduced rare earth content and high-field magnets enabled by rare-earth-free superconductors. In this paper we introduce the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's newly advanced GeneratorSE 2.0, which is a design and optimization tool that was developed to investigate the feasibility of such modern generators. Two direct-drive generator topologies with different magnet materials and mounting arrangements are investigated: an outer-rotor, V-shaped interior permanent magnet generator, and an inner-rotor normally conducting armature, paired with a low-temperature superconducting field with race-track coils. These technologies were evaluated for a range of power ratings between 15 and 25 MW, which represent the next generation of offshore wind turbines for both fixed-bottom and floating applications. The analyses indicate a new trend favoring the low-temperature superconducting technology for the direct-drive system.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Wind Energy Technologies Office
DOE Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
2203916
Report Number(s):
NREL/CP-5000-87856; MainId:88631; UUID:26e530f4-8a09-403b-80f9-ac194b0d423b; MainAdminID:70952
Resource Relation:
Conference: Presented at the 2023 IEEE International Electric Machines & Drives Conference (IEMDC), 15-18 May 2023, San Francisco, California; Related Information: 85599
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (7)

Comparison of interior and surface permanent magnet machines with fractional slot concentrated windings for direct-drive wind generators conference October 2014
Future material requirements for global sustainable offshore wind energy development journal August 2022
Magnetostatik der Massekerne journal June 1931
OpenMDAO: an open-source framework for multidisciplinary design, analysis, and optimization journal March 2019
Comparison Study of Superconducting Wind Generators With HTS and LTS Field Windings journal June 2015
Rough seas for the superconducting wind turbine: To keep offshore turbines light, engineers look beyond superconductors to a new permanent-magnet tech journal August 2018
Levelized Cost of Energy Comparison Between Permanent Magnet and Superconducting Wind Generators for Various Nominal Power journal October 2022

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Related Subjects

WIND ENERGY
direct-drive generators
rare-earth-free magnets
superconductors