Methods to reduce the wind temperature of the generator

How to improve wind power generation reliability and reduce maintenance?

The wind power generation industry often prefers less performant conservative solutions against more performant but riskier ones. The steps that can be taken to increase reliability and reduce maintenance are as follows: Adopt a safe cooling fluid inside the generator like air or an inert gas.

How can wind turbines be cooled?

For example, the industry standard for cooling offshore large wind turbines adopted by many OEMs is forced air cooling in a closed loop configuration. This solution is bulky and furthermore increases in size and weight with the wind turbine output power.

Which generator is best for a wind turbine?

Small wind turbine applications are therefore better using a gearbox or an oversized direct-drive generator that can be naturally cooled. The direct-drive generator is therefore more suitable for medium to large wind turbines.

Why do wind generators need to be serviced?

This method is usually adopted in larger generators (hundreds of MVA), which are usually onshore and easily accessible for maintenance. For wind power generation, which has an important offshore trend, the maintenance can be a drawback as two separate cooling systems need to be serviced.

Should a generator be connected to a wind turbine?

One major design decision is whether to directly connect the generator’s shaft to the wind turbine or to use a gearbox [ 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 ]. Both designs have pros and cons. The gearbox option allows the generator to operate at a higher speed than the one provided by the wind turbine blades.

What are the performance and maintenance requirements for a wind turbine?

The performance and maintenance requirements are unavoidable compromises that need to be investigated together, especially for large generators. The location of the wind turbine is also important and dictates critical issues such as accessibility and maximum size.