A method for comparing the levelized cost of energy (LCoE) of different superconducting drive trains is introduced. The properties of a 10-MW MgB₂ superconducting direct-drive generator and the cost break down of the nacelle components are presented and scaled up to a turbine with a rotor diameter of up to 280 m. The partial load efficiency of the generator is evaluated for a constant cooling power of 0, 50, and 100 kW, and the annual energy production is used to determine the impact on the LCoE.

Innovative drive trains targeted at 10-20 MW offshore turbines are investigated in the INNWIND.EU project in order to determine the impact on the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCoE) resulting when installed in the ,North sea at 50 m of water [1]. The two main technologies studied are superconducting direct drive (SCDD)[2] and the magnetic pseudo direct drive (PDD) [3] generators, which are both capable to providing compact drive trains with low weight and a small number of moving parts compared to a gearbox based drive train (see figure 1a). Superconducting field coils are used to provide the torque in the direct drive generators, where the armature windings are based on conventional copper wire and magnetic steel laminates operated at ambient temperature. Magnetic pseudo direct drive generators consist of a magnetic gearbox made of an inner free rotor (rotating at a geared up speed to the blade input) and an intermediate drive rotor inserted into an outer static armature winding, where the electricity is harvested.