Economic Efficiency Aspects of a Multi-megawatt Wind Turbine Drive Train with Multiple High-speed Generators
The objective of this work is to show the economic potential of a multi-megawatt wind turbine (WT) drive train with multiple high-speed generators, already during the conceptual phase. One such drive train is being investigated in the project RapidWind and displays a higher power density due to the higher speed of the generators, which leads to a reduction in weight and size of the WT. Furthermore, the design with multiple generators enables the utilization of more identical parts. This in turn results in an increased economic efficiency in series manufacturing. Due to the low material demand of the generators, raw material price fluctuations have little effect on the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE), which at 6.2 ct/kWh is in the lower range of current WTs (4.5–10.7 ct/kWh).