Towards more reliable and cost effective superconducting generators for wind turbines

For large(~10 MW) wind turbines, direct-drive superconducting generators are proposed to reduce the tower head mass, which help to reduce the installation costs. Most of the existing designs has a very similar topology: a synchronous machine with a rotating superconducting field winding. However, this topology may not be the most suitable design for harsh offshore conditions. A novel transverse flux design is presented in this paper. The design has stationary and modular superconducting field windings combined with a double armature structure is presented in this paper.