More effective energy production requires a greater penetration of storage technologies. This paper takes a looks at and compares the landscape of energy storage devices. Solutions across four categories of storage, namely: mechanical, chemical, electromagnetic and thermal storage are compared on the basis of energy/power density, specific energy/power, efficiency, lifespan, cycle life, self-discharge rates, capital energy/power costs, scale, application, technical maturity as well as environmental impact. It’s noted that virtually every storage technology is seeing improvements. This paper provides an overview of some of the problems with existing storage systems and identifies some key technologies that hold promise.

The marine energy industry is in its early stages but has a large potential for growth. One of the most significant challenges is the reduction of operation and maintenance costs. Magnetic gears (MGs) offer the potential for long periods between maintenance intervals due to their frictionless torque transmission which could reduce these costs. This study presents a summary of the state of the art in MG technology and then investigates its potential for marine energy applications. A brief overview is given of the state of the marine energy industry and the environment in which marine energy converters (MECs) operate. A short history of MG development over the past century is then presented followed by a discussion of the leading MG technologies and their relative advantages. In order to demonstrate the potential of MGs in marine applications, the current technologies, i.e. mechanically geared and direct drive machines, are examined in terms of sizing, reliability and economic value using previous studies on a similar technology, namely wind. MGs are applied to four types of MECs to demonstrate how the technology can be incorporated. The potential to deploy at scale and potential obstacles to this are then discussed.

Superconductor technology has recently attracted increasing attention in power-generation- and electrical-propulsion-related domains, as it provides a solution to the limited power density seen by the core component, electrical machines. Superconducting machines, characterized by both high power density and high efficiency, can effectively reduce the size and mass compared to conventional machine designs. This opens the way to large-scale purely electrical applications, e.g., all-electrical aircrafts. The alternating current (AC) loss of superconductors caused by time-varying transport currents or magnetic fields (or both) has impaired the efficiency and reliability of superconducting machines, bringing severe challenges to the cryogenic systems, too. Although much research has been conducted in terms of the qualitative and quantitative analysis of AC loss and its reduction methods, AC loss remains a crucial problem for the design of highly efficient superconducting machines, especially for those operating at high speeds for future aviation. Given that a critical review on the research advancement regarding the AC loss of superconductors has not been reported during the last dozen years, especially combined with electrical machines, this paper aims to clarify its research status and provide a useful reference for researchers working on superconducting machines. The adopted superconducting materials, analytical formulae, modelling methods, measurement approaches, as well as reduction techniques for AC loss of low-temperature superconductors (LTSs) and high-temperature superconductors (HTSs) in both low- and high-frequency fields have been systematically analyzed and summarized. Based on the authors’ previous research on the AC loss characteristics of HTS coated conductors (CCs), stacks, and coils at high frequencies, the challenges for the existing AC loss quantification methods have been elucidated, and multiple suggestions with respect to the AC loss reduction in superconducting machines have been put forward. This article systematically reviews the qualitative and quantitative analysis methods of AC loss as well as its reduction techniques in superconductors applied to electrical machines for the first time. It is believed to help deepen the understanding of AC loss and deliver a helpful guideline for the future development of superconducting machines and applied superconductivity.

This paper discusses the development of linear Vernier Hybrid Machines for use in wave energy converters. A number of topology options are explored to reduce magnet usage and improve performance for use as a linear generator. Consequent pole, V-shape and Halbach arrays are designed for a target 25kW specification. A discussion of overall cost of energy produced is used to justify using efficiency and power factor to asses fixed magnet mass topology variants. A power factor improvement from 0.38 to 0.72 is presented. Physical integration of the electrical machine into wave energy converters is considered including flooded experimental results of thermal behavior and polymer bearing wear.

Partial demagnetization is a condition that may occur in Permanent Magnet machines due to overloading or thermal stress. When this happens, the magnetic field locally weakens leading to an asymmetry of the air-gap field. This asymmetry will cause harmonics, which will be expressed as extra losses and mechanical oscillations. Moreover, since the field becomes weaker, more current is required to serve the load leading to less efficiency, increased losses and consequently increase of the temperature, which will cause further progression of the demagnetization severity until a total machine breakdown. Several methods have been proposed in the literature for the online detection of the demagnetization, however they have not related the fault to the manufacturing characteristics of the machine, which play an important role on the expected harmonic index and the associated fault signatures. This paper presents for the first time a detailed analytical investigation of the expected harmonics in the stator current spectrum in case of demagnetization, as a function of the stator winding and number of poles. The analytical results are verified by extensive simulations via the finite element method and experimental testing.