Direct Drive Wind Turbine Generator Design

The gearbox wind turbine and the direct drive wind turbine.

Direct drive wind turbine generator design.

Wind turbine design is the process of defining the form and specifications of a wind turbine to extract energy from the wind. Design of direct driven permanent magnet generators for wind turbines by anders grauers department of electric power engineering chalmers university of technology abstract this thesis presents an investigation of how a direct driven wind turbine generator should be designed and how small and efficient such a generator will be. Low speed direct drive permanent magnet generators pmg 1650 6300 kw 11 17 rpm. Wind energy generated by wind turbine technology is one of the fastest developing sustainable power sources due to its promising potential.

Wind turbines are manufactured in a wide range of vertical and horizontal axis. Two types of wind turbines share the focus of current development efforts and are competing to be recognized as the dominant design. Permanent magnets frameless alternators for direct drive of wind and water turbines. In this study two types of wind turbines are studied.

The smallest turbines are used for applications such as battery charging for auxiliary power for boats or caravans or to power traffic warning signs. In a conventional gear driven turbine the rotor blades spin a shaft which drives gears that drive a generator in a direct drive design the drive shaft spins the generator directly causing it to spin at the same speed as the turbine blades. The switch low speed direct drive pmgs operate without any gearbox and fast rotating parts. To reduce the risk of investing in the wrong type of wind turbine and thereby having to pay extra switching costs an important question is which of these different options will turn out to become the dominant design.

The range of stk permanent magnet alternators also called permanent magnet generators addresses the applications of wind turbine generators windmill alternators or windmill generators for small wind turbines and small water turbines that is to say in low and medium power needing the highest power to weight. The typical speed range is between 10 rpm and 20 rpm. A wind turbine installation consists of the necessary systems needed to capture the wind s energy point the turbine into the wind convert mechanical rotation into electrical power and other systems to start stop and control the turbine. The simple construction with fewer components lead to increased reliability and superior drive train efficiency.

The lagerwey direct drive permanent magnet generator outlines a new era for wind turbine integration. Direct drive refers to a type of wind turbine design that eliminates the gears in a conventional wind turbine.