Evaluating the Cost of Energy of a 10 MW Direct-Drive Wind Turbine with Superconducting Generators

Abstract

Superconducting generators are being proposed and investigated for large offshore wind turbines because of their compactness and light weight. Cost of energy is the key performance indicator to evaluate the feasibility of commercially applying superconducting generators to wind energy. This paper models, estimates and evaluates the cost of energy of a 10 MW direct-drive wind turbine for three superconducting generator designs with MgB2 field windings. These superconducting generator designs are compared regarding the cost of energy as well as other important performance indicators. The results show the fully iron-cored design has the lowest cost of energy and superior overall performance.