US Navy

US Navy
AMSC, which has its headquarters in Devens, Massachusetts, is known in the UK energy sector for its voltage control systems, including the D-VAR dynamic control system that allows wind farms to be connected up to the grid, meeting strict UK grid codes.
Last month the company completed testing on a 36.5MW electric motor for a US Navy ship in Philadelphia, which used coils of AMSC's High Temperature Superconductor (HTS) wires rather than conventional copper wire.
We've been working on these power dense machines for 17 years - this is proventechnology.
Jason Fredette, AMSC
Mr Fredette said that for the 10MW turbine, the motor design would effectively be run in reverse in order to generate energy from the wind.
AMSC claims its HTS wires can carry 150 times the capacity of power than copper wires, which it says will mean the 10MW turbine is expected to be around 120 tonnes in weight, rather than the 300 tonnes suggested for a conventional direct drive 10MW turbine.
Further benefits will come from the direct drive design, which would not require a bulky, maintenance-hungry gearbox.
"We've been working on these power dense machines for 17 years - this is proven technology," Mr Fredette explained.
"We have a successful project with the US Navy - there's $100 million invested in that project, and now the same machine run in reverse can be used by the wind market."
Under the 12-month programme with the US wind centre, AMSC Windtec, the company's Austrian wind power design division, will work with the US National Wind Technology Center to analyse the cost of a full 10MW turbine system including the blades, hub, power electronics, nacelle, tower and controls.
The NWTC will then evaluate the wind turbine's economic impact, both in terms of initial cost and overall cost of energy per MW of installed capacity.
The company told New Energy Focus it had internal ideas of the kind of costs that would be involved, but was unwilling to make those estimates public to pre-empt the study.