While some renewable energy companies have been struggling this year, the trend overall is increased renewable energy globally. Despite struggles in the solar field, companies continue to expand. As for the wind industry, it too has had some struggles but overall has increased over the past year. Scientific research centering around more efficient renewable energy has also increased.
Creating more efficient, higher megawatt wind turbines has been a priority for some in the wind energy field for many years. Now General Electric is researching how to create just such a wind turbine using MRI technology. GE has significant history with MRI systems as they have worked with the superconducting magnets inside the MRIs for decades.
The aspect of MRIs which are of interest to the wind industry is the superconducting wire inside the superconducting magnets. Wind turbines require generators and generators are traditionally made with copper wiring, a system which is flawed in that it loses a lot of energy and produces significant heat. Many wind turbines use rare earth metals in order to escape these problems, however, rare earth metals are difficult to come by.
Superconducting magnet technology would resolve this dilemma and reduce the size and weight of generators for wind turbines. The superconducting technology is not problem-free, however, which is why the United States Department of Energy recently gave GE $3 million in order to research how to use MRI technology in wind turbines. The grant allows the company two years to research.
In the end, GE and the U.S. government hope to be able to create wind turbines which are able to generate 10 to 15 megawatts of energy. The average wind turbine on the market today only generates between 2 to 4 megawatts. The proposed wind turbine would be approximately three times greater in size than those on the market currently, however.
