GE has received a $12 million grant from the US Department of Energy to support the development of a breakthrough technology for high-efficiency generators that ‘could lead to millions of dollars in energy savings and reduce emissions’. The grant is part of a larger programme supporting superconductivity projects (see p. 9).
Building on its research into high-temperature superconducting (HTS) materials and generators, GE has proposed a three and a half year programme, to be conducted by a GE led team of industrial partners, utilities and national laboratories, to produce major improvements in the efficiency and reactive power capability of new generators, as well as the capability to retrofit the new technology into existing generators. The proposed generator will introduce a new rotor design and HTS winding ‘unprecedented in its simplicity’ according to GE. Recent progress made by HTS wire manufacturers has helped pave the way for the development of an HTS generator with the potential for competitive cost, high reliability, and acceptance by the power industry. American Superconductor, who have been in the forefront of this work, are to provide the HTS wire and expect to meet the programme’s needs with their current technology.
Concept designs indicate that new superconducting generators can achieve efficiency gains on a scale that produces life cycle energy savings of $500 000 over the life of a 100 MVA generator, and up to $10 million for a 1200 MVA unit. This could increase overall power plant energy productivity perhaps by as much as several billion kWh, with corresponding reductions in CO2 emissions.
The programme includes the production and testing of a 1.5 MVA proof-of-concept model for the rotor, cryorefrigeration and HTS subsystems. Those results would be scaled up to a 100 MVA prototype generator.
