London Array offshore wind farm. (Photo by Evwind.es)A cryogenic European Union ** project called SUPRAPOWER is designed to facilitate the development of the most compact, reliable and powerful wind turbines using less wind and lighter generators capable of generating as much power as generators of larger, traditional.
This would be cooling coil of generator wind turbine at cryogenic temperatures until they reach a superconducting State.
In this State, the resistance of the coil to the flow of electric current is zero, so the coils generate heat.
This makes it possible to use small generators is because their power is in fact mostly determined by their temperature. More current results in the generation of the most heat, and the generators can handle the heat so much.
Once they get too hot, you can not that they generate a current more as they will overheat. This amazing phenomenon is called superconductivity and the coil becomes a superconductor.
In the case of this project, a 'cryostat' rotation is the device used to cool the generator up to - 253.15 ° C using small Gifford-McMahon coolers supplied by the partner of the project Oerlikon Leybold Vacuum.
A cryostat is a device in which you place objects to keep them refrigerated.
The heat is what kills the windings of the generator and nothing else. Keeping them cool allows them in recent decades. All wind turbines may benefit, but the offshore turbines could benefit including low maintenance requirements.
In addition to the above, superconducting coils do not waste as much electricity in the form of heat, because they resist the flow of electrical current. This improves the efficiency of wind turbine in this case.
Superconducting cables are smaller because they can deal with the unusually high amounts of electricity. It is because they are not hot, in the absence of electrical resistance.
Superconducting refrigerators come at a cost. However, they are promising, and this effort can succeed. And if it is not, as usual, researchers will learn from it, which will help to advance the science of research on the wind.
If a substance is cryogenic, this means its temperature is below-150 ° C.
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