Novel Design of a Variable Speed Constant Frequency Wind Turbine Power Converter.

The operation and efficiency of wind turbines at present are hampered by the variable speed nature of wind, yet the constant speed requirements of electrical generators, hence wind turbines speeds are generally held down to a constant value regardless of wind conditions. This paper presents a novel design for a power converter that can produce a fixed output suitable for grid connection, while operating at variable speed governed by the available wind power. This novel design utilizes advances in high power, high frequency solid-state switches (IGBT's) based on an ADSP-21990 fixed-point mixed-signal digital signal processor (DSP). At present the system has been designed and simulated using Matlab and is currently in the build and test stage.