Direct drive superconducting wind generators - Wind Power Generation and Wind Turbine Design - page 315

Historic and Forecast HTS Wire Price

1G HTS

1000 2G HTS

Viablilty for wind

100

10

1

1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016

Year

Figure 6 : HTS wire price trend.

A number of different manufacturing processes are used to produce HTS wire
of this composition. Superpower Inc., for example, use a vacuum deposition pro-
cess [33], others use a mixture of chemical and vacuum processes. Zenergy Power
Plc has been developing an all chemical deposition process, which they believe
offers the potential for the lowest cost volume production [34]. Other manufacturers
have also begun to look at all chemical processes.

5.3 HTS wire cost trends

HTS wire prices for 1G wire fell rapidly from the mid-1990s. Since 2004 the price
of 1G wire has fallen more slowly as manufacturers have ceased production to
concentrate on commercialisation of 2G wire.
2G wire fi rst became commercially available in 2006-2007, although at a high
cost, and with performance inferior to 1G wire. By the end of 2008 the perfor-
mance of 2G wire was beginning to approach that of 1G, but with prices still
higher. In 2009 the performance of the best 2G wire is expected to exceed that of
1G and the price to be comparable.
The historic and forecast prices are shown in Fig. 6, in which forecast prices
were obtained from data supplied by a number of HTS wire manufacturers. The
forecast shows that commercial viability for HTS technology in wind turbines is
expected to occur after 2013.

6 Converteam HTS wind generator

In 2004 Converteam Ltd. (then ALSTOM Power Conversion Ltd.), undertook a
feasibility study into a direct drive wind generator based on the use of low cost
2G HTS wires, expected to become available in commercial quantities and at an