Mass reduction of superconducting power generators for large wind turbines

Abstract

High temperature superconductors (HTS) enable very compact electric machines with high power density. Here, an HTS power generator based on authors’ previous double claw pole design is studied and improved. The original design of the double claw pole machine features a stationary field core to provide support and access to the superconducting field winding and its cryostat. It does not serve any other purpose. However, a homopolar field passes through it. The improvement was made to replace the field core by iron-cored copper coils, creating an inner stator within the generator to increase the electric loading. Through this step, the power output of the generator was increased from 10 to 11.6 MW, increasing the power density from 54.28 to 63.54 W/kg while maintaining the same outer diameter.

Keywords

• electric machines
• high-temperature superconductors
• synchronous generators
• electric generators
• superconducting machines
• wind turbines
• stators
• compact electric machines
• high power density
• HTS power generator
• authors
• original design
• double claw pole machine
• stationary field core
• support
• superconducting field
• homopolar field
• iron-cored copper coils
• electric loading
• power output
• mass reduction
• superconducting power generators
• wind turbines
• high temperature superconductors
• power 10.0 MW to 11.6 MW
• power 54.28 W to 63.54 W