The Switch’s medium-speed, rear-mounted PMG design brings together the best of both low- and high-speed technology, offering extremely high availability and reliability, and resulting in increased annual energy production, particularly at partial loads, according to Jukka-Pekka Mäkinen, The Switch CEO. Medium-speed designs lower the generator weight without compromising on reliability.
The Switch full-power liquid-cooled converters are modular, compact, efficient and redundant, offering extremely high availability. According to the company, this extends the system’s lifetime in the rugged coastal conditions and significantly lowers maintenance requirements. The company’s simple PMG design eliminates fail-prone components and featrues optimized magnet material. In addition, a special segmented structure in both the mechanical and electrical parts allows easy and more cost-efficient maintenance.
Medium-speed drive trains are not only lighter, but they require only 10 per cent of the magnets needed for a direct-drive generator of the same power rating. Additionally, efficiencies that exceed 97% approach values that are normally typical only for high-speed generators. All of this adds up to a higher annual energy production and better wind turbine profitability – offshore as well as onshore.