Passively cooled direct drive wind turbine

Patent · Tue Mar 18 00:00:00 EDT 2008

OSTI ID:970486

Costin, Daniel P ^[1]

---

1. Chelsea, VT

A wind turbine is provided that passively cools an electrical generator. The wind turbine includes a plurality of fins arranged peripherally around a generator house. Each of the fins being oriented at an angle greater than zero degrees to allow parallel flow of air over the fin. The fin is further tapered to allow a constant portion of the fin to extend beyond the air stream boundary layer. Turbulence initiators on the nose cone further enhance heat transfer at the fins.

• Research Organization: NORTHERN POWER SYSTEMS
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: FC36-03GO13131
• Assignee: Distributed Energy Systems Corporation (Wallingford, CT)
• Patent Number(s): 7,345,376
• Application Number: 11/287,959
• OSTI ID: 970486
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

17 WIND ENERGY