A novel medium-voltage converter system for compact and light wind turbine generators

The classical approach based on low-voltage converter is commonly employed a low-frequency transformer (inside or outside the nacelle) of wind turbine system. Because of the heave weight and large size of the transformer, the turbine can be expensive and complex for installation and maintenance. As an alternative approach to achieve a compact and light wind turbine a medium-voltage converter using series connected H-bridge multilevel converter topology is proposed. The transformer-less novel architecture thus leads to a compact and environmentally friendly design, which can save large amount of installation, running and maintenance costs of wind turbine. This paper mainly focuses on design and simulation of the proposed wind turbine.