Northern Power NW 1500 Direct-Drive Generator: April 12, 2001 - September 30, 2006

Abstract

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL) Wind Partnerships for Advanced Component Technologies (WindPACT) project sought to advance wind turbine technology by exploring innovative concepts in drivetrain design. A team led by Northern Power Systems (Northern) of Waitsfield, Vermont, was chosen to perform this work under subcontract YCX-1-30209-02. The team set project objectives to identify, design, and test a megawatt (MW)-scale drivetrain with the lowest overall life-cycle cost. The project comprised three phases: Preliminary study of alternative drivetrain designs (Phase I) Detailed design development (Phase II) Proof of concept fabrication and test (Phase III). This report summarizes the results of all three phases of this project. Participants The WindPACT project was conducted under directive from NREL, with active participation from personnel at the National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) at Golden, Colorado. Northern Power Systems, the prime subcontractor, assembled a highly experienced team for the WindPACT project. The following table identifies team members (in bold) and contributing consultants, along with their major roles.

Design and Optimization of a Large-Scale Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator

“…First, the initial design PMSG is simulated and the simulation results are presented in Table II. It is clear that the simulation results are compatible with both the analytical results and experimental results from [32]. Then, the optimum generator is simulated and the simulation results are reported in Table IV, which prove the accuracy of the calculation results of the optimum design.…”

“…The calculation and FEA simulation results for the initial design PMSG are reported in Table II compared to the experimental results from [32]. It is clear that the initial design results well match with the experimental measurements.…”

“…The performance of the designed generator is calculated using the presented analytical model based on the winding function analysis [31]. The analytical results are validated with the experimental results of the Northern Power direct-drive generator from [32]. After that, PMSG's dimensions are optimized using genetic algorithm (GA) method [33] to reduce the required PM volume and voltage regulation and to enhance the efficiency and power factor compared to the initial design (Northern Power generator).…”

“…The mechanical stiffness and the thermal expansion of the generator limit the minimum air gap length. In this paper, the minimum air gap length is assumed 4 mm [32] and minimum utilized air gap length is 4.7 mm considering the results of deflection analysis from [32].…”

“…Skewing the stator poles is a well-known method to decrease the voltage THD [32]. It can also help the machine to work with lower vibration and acoustic noise [40].…”