A team of engineers in the Electrical Systems group at GE Research have demonstrated a MW-scale modular, multi-level wind power converter in its lab in Upstate New York, USA. To pull off the wind converter demonstration, GE engineers turned one of their labs on campus into a virtual 3.5 MW wind turbine outfitted with an actual wind generator and gearbox from GE’s Renewable Energy business. GE scientists then developed, built and integrated its modular, multi-level “Tower of Power,” as it was coined by the team, into this virtual environment. The setup allowed the converter to be tested under real conditions as if a 300+ foot high wind turbine was standing tall and spinning in the middle of GE’s Research campus. GE’s new modular, multi-level power conversion architecture was built like toy blocks, or bricks. The demonstration successfully culminates the key objective a five-year project through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Manufacturing Office’s (AMO) Next Generation Electric Machines program.
