Ultra-High Voltage Silicon Carbide Thyristor Converters for Offshore Wind

可靠性和成本效益对于海上风电行业的增长和实现英国2020年的目标至关重要。电力电子变流器是现代风力发电机组的关键部件，占其成本的10%，损耗的15%，故障率的12%。因此，提高变流器的成本、效率和可靠性对于降低海上风电的能源成本(COE)具有重要意义。Zagres基于先进的超高压碳化硅(UHV SIC)技术的新晶闸管设计可以为实现这些改进做出重大贡献：我们的初步评估显示，可以实现7.4%的COE和12%的故障率。该项目将研究特高压碳化硅晶闸管技术的可行性，并首次在实际20千瓦风力涡轮机上评估其性能。该项目将为后续开发奠定基础：开发和测试更大尺寸的风力变流器。

Reliability and cost-effectiveness are vital to the growth of the offshore wind industry and to realise the UK's targets for 2020. Power Electronics Converters are a key part of modern wind turbines, accounting for 10 % of their cost, 15 % of losses, and 12 % of failure rate. Hence improving converters' cost, efficiency and reliability is important to achieve lower Cost of Energy (CoE) from offshore wind power. Zagres' new Thyristor design based on advanced Ultra-High Voltage Silicon Carbide (UHV SiC) technology can offer a major contribution in realising these improvements: our preliminary assessments have shown 7.4% lower CoE and 12% lower failure rate can be achieved. This project will study the feasibility of UHV SiC Thyristor technology, proven in concept at laboratory scale, and assess its performance on a real 20 kW wind turbine, for the first time. The project will set the foundation for the follow-on exploitation: development and testing for larger size wind converters.