The largest commercial wind turbines are now available at approaching 2MW in size. Larger machines are envisaged, mainly for an emergent off shore market. At the same time, direct drive generators have become popular for wind turbine applications. However, for example, a 5MW permanent magnet generator could be 15 metres in diameter, and extremely heavy. There are several problem areas arising from the size and weight of these generators, eg: (i) The use of very large bore machine tools (ii) High roofed workshops with large capacity cranes are needed (iii) Transportation of any large outsourced parts for assembly, or the finished generator. This is even more problematic for the export market (iv) Installation at the tower head.
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