The levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of offshore wind energy conversion systems using permanent magnet and fully superconducting generators is compared. Scaling laws are used to calculate the masses and the costs of all the components, to the exception of the generators that are designed and optimized by using the finite element method. The comparisons are done for various turbine’s nominal power, ranging from 2 to 23 MW. The results show that for each generator type, there exists an optimal nominal power that minimizes the LCOE. In addition, the use of a superconducting generator could significantly lower (about 7% at 20 MW) the LCOE compared with using a permanent magnet generator.

This article investigates the comparison between two configurations of 20 MW offshore synchronous wind generators using ferrite and rare-earth permanent magnets. The optimization-based comparison concerns the torque ripple and active mass, which are two crucial criteria for offshore wind generators. Both generators adopt surface-mounted permanent magnet type with direct-drive technology to avoid problems associated with the gearboxes. The result shows that at the full-load condition, the ferrite permanent magnet generator can reduce the torque ripple to as much as 0.12%, while the rare-earth counterpart can be about 2.5 times lighter than the former one.