Cost-Oriented Design Considerations on Direct-Drive Wind Turbine Generators with Superconducting Excitation Winding

The market for large wind turbine generators experiences a trend towards steadily increasing rated unit power. This development requires generator solutions with high power density. In case of low-maintenance, low-speed direct drive synchronous generators, HTS excitation windings offer potentials by allowing for a higher electromagnetic utilization. As today’s commercially available HTS tapes are still rather expensive, this work addresses the need for both a light weight and cost effective design by a 2D-FEM simulation based study of basic machine parameters.