3 MW class offshore wind turbine development

This paper introduces the design and development of a 3 MW class offshore wind turbine (WinDS3000). The design has been carried out by considering high reliability, availability, maintainability and serviceability (RAMS) for the wind class TC Ia. An integrated drive train design, which has an innovative three stage gearbox, has been introduced to minimize nacelle weight of the wind turbine and to enhance a high reliability for transmission. A permanent magnet generator (PMG) with fully-rated converter has been introduced for its better efficiency in partial-load operation, thus it is grid-friendly and can adapt itself to either 50 Hz or 60 Hz grid connection. A pitch-regulated variable speed power control with individual pitch system has been adopted to regulate rotor torque while generator reaction torque can be adjusted almost instantaneously by the associated power electronics. It is expected that the blade and system load can be reduced by using individual pitch control. The wind turbine also has been equipped with condition monitoring and diagnostic systems in order to achieve maintainability requirements.