An Application Analysis of Wide-Bandgap Device for Medium Voltage Wind Energy Conversion System

This paper presents a simulation-based study on analyzing the benefit of using medium voltage (MV) wide bandgap (WBG) devices for megawatt scale wind energy conversion systems (WECS). MV WBG devices available in the market are only silicon carbide (SiC) based MOSFET, and the application of those devices is majorly in the traction drives for aviation and navigation, which are weight and power density sensitive applications. WECS is less sensitive to the weight of the system compared to the cost. However, as the technology of MV SiC MOSFET is getting mature and the production increases, the price of MV SiC MOSFET will decrease. This paper is using a megawatts WECS as an example for simulation to study the benefit of using MV WBG devices over silicon based IGBT and IGCT for power conversion for wind generators in terms of converter topology, efficiency, cost, weight, and size.