Torque Ripple and Mass Comparison between 20 MW Rare-Earth and Ferrite Permanent Magnet Wind Generators

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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.