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.

A direct-drive superconducting generator (DDSCG) is proposed for 10 MW wind turbines in the INNWIND.EU project. To fit the generator into the ``king-pin'' conceptual nacelle design, the generator structure with inner stationary superconducting (SC) field winding and outer rotating copper armature winding is investigated in the first research phase. Since the cost is an important performance indicator for this application, this paper presents a method to minimize the active material cost of the ``king-pin'' fitted DDSCG. In this method a relatively fast optimization program is developed with 2D non-linear finite element models. By implementing this method, three typical superconducting generator topologies are compared in terms of the active material cost and mass, the synchronous reactance and the phase resistance. The optimization method and the comparison results provide the DDSCG designers with a guideline for selecting a suitable machine topology.