Windpower Engineering & Development

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Most recent posts
    • News
    • Featured
  • Resources
    • Digital issues
    • Podcasts
    • Suppliers
    • Webinars
    • Events
  • Videos
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
  • Magazine
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe

EU kicks off superconducting generator project

By Paul Dvorak | February 7, 2013

Karlsruhe Institute of TechnologyEfficient power generation from offshore wind power plants requires powerful, reliable generators that do not cause a disproportionately high logistic effort nor require complex foundations. Theoretically, generators with superconductors can be increased to 10 MW while at the same time reducing a unit’s weight and size. Superconducting generators can also be built with less than 1% of the rare earths required for manufacturing the currently most frequently used permanent-magnet generator. Superconduction, hence, allows building efficient, reliable, and compact wind power plants at lower building, operating, and maintenance costs as compared to conventional generators.

It is the objective of the EU-supported project SUPRAPOWER (SUPerconducting, Reliable, lightweight, And more POWERful offshore wind turbine) to use the high potential of supraconduction to expand use of wind power. The four-year project recently started has nine partners from industry and science cooperating under the coordination of Fundación Tecnalia Research & Innovation, Spain. The partners will develop a wind-power plant with a direct-drive superconducting generator.

The innovative direct drive should reduce transport and maintenance costs and extend the turbine’s service life. The Cryogenic Engineering Division at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) Institute for Technical Physics (ITEP) will contribute a cooling system:

Below a certain temperature, superconductors have no electrical resistance and conduct electricity without loss. To ensure proper operation of the superconducting generator, the coils must be cooled below this transition temperature. The researchers at ITEP are developing a rotating low-loss cryostat that cools the superconducting coils to 20°Kelvin (-253.15°C) through pure heat conduction by means of small Gifford-McMahon coolers provided by project partner Oerlikon Leybold Vacuum. “Because the cooling performance of such coolers is limited, we must ensure that heat between them and the superconducting coils conducts well,” says Head of the Cryogenic Engineering Division Dr. Holger Neumann. “Besides, we must consider the influence of rotation on the heat pipes we may use. On the other hand, the cryostat needs a highly effective thermal insulation.” Work on the cooling system will translate the findings from fundamental research to practice. This is attractive to young scientists.

KIT is one of Europe’s leading energy research establishments. Research, education, and innovation at KIT foster the energy turnaround and reorganization of the energy system in Germany. The Institute links excellent competences in engineering and science with know-how in economics, the humanities, and social science as well as law. The activities of the KIT Energy Center are organized in seven topics: Energy conversion, renewable energies, energy storage and distribution, efficient energy use, fusion technology, nuclear power and safety, and energy systems analysis. Clear priorities lie in the areas of energy efficiency and renewable energies, energy storage technologies and grids, electromobility, and enhanced international cooperation in research. KIT is a public corporation according to the legislation of the state of Baden-Württemberg. It fulfills the mission of a university and the mission of a national research center of the Helmholtz Association. KIT focuses on a knowledge triangle that links the tasks of research, teaching, and innovation.

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

www.kit.edu/english/


Filed Under: Generators, News, Turbines
Tagged With: karlsruhe
 

About The Author

Paul Dvorak

Related Articles Read More >

Richardson Electronics to deliver pitch energy modules to TransAlta wind fleets
Equinor halts work on Empire Wind offshore project after federal government order
ARESCA wants input on offshore wind standards
US wind market has worst install year since 2013

Podcasts

Wind Spotlight: Looking back at a year of Thrive with ZF Wind Power
See More >

Windpower Engineering & Development Digital Edition

Digital Edition

Browse the most current issue of Windpower Engineering & Development and back issues in an easy to use high quality format. Clip, share and download with the leading wind power engineering magazine today.

Windpower Engineering & Development
  • Wind Articles
  • Solar Power World
  • Subscribe to Windpower Engineering
  • About Us/Contact Us

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising

Search Windpower Engineering & Development

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Most recent posts
    • News
    • Featured
  • Resources
    • Digital issues
    • Podcasts
    • Suppliers
    • Webinars
    • Events
  • Videos
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
  • Magazine
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe