American Superconductor Corp. (Westborough, MA) announced it has successfully completed load testing of its 5,000HP high-temperature superconductor (HTS) prototype electric motor. The company also reported that it is continuing with its plan for the design, manufacture and testing of its first ship propulsion motor prototype, a higher torque, lower speed motor than the prototype 5,000HP motor.
The 5,000HP motor was engineered to validate the company's design of the HTS
rotor field winding, the high-efficiency refrigeration system and the fresh
water-cooled stator technology. The company's
patented, ultra-compact HTS electric motors are designed to reduce the size, weight and manufacturing costs of large industrial and ship-propulsion motors, compared with conventional motors, while increasing net electrical efficiency.
The company's 5,000HP HTS motor utilizes an off-the-shelf cryogenic cooling system, and its total volume, including all auxiliary equipment, is 264ftcu. Because HTS motors employ very high power density HTS wires, new motor designs can be used to create high-power electric motors that are as little as one-fifth the size of conventional motors that use copper wires.
