05-03-2013, 12:51 PM
Gearless Wind Turbine Technology: State-of-the-Art
Gearless Wind Turbine.pdf (Size: 722.05 KB / Downloads: 154)
New Technology Trends : Wind Turbine Design
For the past Quarter century, conventional Wind Turbine
Design used a step-up Gear Box to increase the slow rotational
speed of a Wind Turbine Rotor to high speed at which
conventional Generator spins.
This standard industry approach has started changing for the
past few years with New Technology Trends and Advances
such as Gearless Wind Turbine Designs and Perman ent
Magnet Generators (PMG).
This is the start of the next revolutionary cycle of the Wind
Turbine Industry.
As Wind Turbines have grown in size over the past decade,
Gear Box b reak downs head the list of failure, with the biggest
economic consequences for Plant Owners.
The main driving force behind the trend to do away with Gear
Boxes is fear of Gear Boxes failure.
Market d emand is for a simple Drive Train with fewer
components.
Variable-Speed – The 2 Competing Systems
• Fewer components, higher reliability
• No gearbox (less losses, failures,
maintenance, noise)
• Higher partial load efficiency (3 – 5%
higher energy production for
permanent-magnet excitation)
• No generator slip rings and brushes
(lower maintenance cost)
• Low voltage, low speed, reliable
generator rotor (especially true for
permanent-magnet excitation)
• Grid-code requirements easily
achieved by simple power converters
Permanent Magnet Generators
Use of a PMG in a Direct Drive Turbine can reduce overall mass
of Drive Train to that of a Gear Box-plus-Generator in a
conventional Wind Turbine of equal size
PMG provides an overall increase in efficiency since it
produces more power at part load operation than achieved by a
Conventional Generator, which reaches peak efficiency at full
load. High efficiency at part load increases the output of Wind
Turbines, which only operate in full load operation during
periods when the wind is blowing hard enough for the machine
to be operating at full load capacity.