From AMSC:
SeaTitan™: The World’s Most Powerful Wind Turbines
The offshore wind power market is now entering a period of rapid and prolonged growth. The European Wind Energy Association expects that Europe alone will increase its amount of offshore wind power from less than 2 gigawatts at the end of 2009 to more than 150 GW by 2030.
Since subsea structures and installation services can account for a majority of offshore wind farm costs, developers are seeking to maximize their "power per tower" to get a more rapid return on investment. With the ability to produce 10 MW of power or more, the SeaTitan is expected to be the world’s most powerful wind turbine. This wind turbine is being developed by AMSC Windtec®.
Each SeaTitan will contain a Titan generator. These generators utilize high temperature superconductor (HTS) rotors rather than copper, which enables the generator to be much smaller, lighter, more efficient and less expensive than conventional large-scale wind turbine generators. In addition, since Titan generators are direct drive, there is no need for a gearbox, which tends to be the most maintenance intensive wind turbine component.
AMSC expects to license SeaTitan wind turbines and Titan generators to multiple manufacturers around the world.
We looked at GE's 4MW gearbox-less turbine last month:
General Electric's New Wind Turbine: "How It Works: The Next-Gen Wind Turbine" (GE)
