Developing and Testing Solutions for a Compact and Efficient Offshore Wind Turbine
For weight, size and cost reasons it is common to employ a mechanical gearbox in a wind turbine generator; however, mechanical gearboxes have disadvantages including reliability, acoustic noise, mechanical vibration and maintenance requirements. A direct drive machine removes many issues, but the size, mass and cost of the turbine may be compromised. In this article the development and testing of a magnetically geared generator and a nacelle structure using a kingpin attachment are discussed. This combination seems to offer both efficiency and a low cost of energy as well as being much more lightweight than traditional solutions.
By Chris Kirby and Stuart Calverley, Magnomatics Limited, and Ewoud Stehouwer and Ben Hendriks,, DNV GL, UK