Generator Systems for Marine Current Turbine Applications: A Comparative Study

Emerging technologies for marine current turbines are mainly related to works that have been carried out on wind turbines and ship propellers. It is then obvious that many electric generator topologies could be used for marine current turbines. As in the wind turbine context, doubly-fed induction generators and permanent magnet generators seem to be attractive solutions for harnessing the tidal current energy. In this paper, a comparative study between these two generator types is presented and fully analyzed in terms of generated power, maintenance, and operation constraints. This comparison is done for the Raz de Sein site (Brittany, France) using a multiphysics modeling simulation tool. This tool integrates, in a modular environment, the resource model, the turbine hydrodynamic model, and generator models. Experiments have also been carried out to confirm the simulation results.