Tentative design and evaluation of a high-temperature superconducting generator.

Studies on superconducting generators have been carried out worldwide. Especially in Japan, it is worthy of attention that Super-GM led the national project concerning the successful development of the 70 MW-class superconducting generators. Low-temperature superconducting wires have been applied to field windings of generators. In Japan, the next-generation coated conductors, namely, high-temperature superconducting wires, have proceeded under the national project supported by NEDO. Provided that the next-generation coated conductors are applied to field windings, the weight and volume of superconducting generators will be reduced. Furthermore, using liquid nitrogen as a coolant instead of liquid helium, the reliability of high-temperature superconducting generators is expected to improve. This paper provides tentative designs of a high-temperature superconducting generator whose field windings are composed of YBa2Cu3O7-x wires. By comparison with the low-temperature superconducting generator developed by Super-GM, the usefulness of the high-temperature superconducting generator is discussed. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 141(1): 1–7, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience (<URL>www.interscience.wiley.com</URL>). DOI 10.1002/eej.10052 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]