Abstract:
We have been working on a wind energy harvesting architecture suitable for offshore wind turbines funded by the Department of Energy since 2018. We used a 400 W benchtop setup to prove the concept initially. Recently, the concept was demonstrated at a 125 kW power level at our POETS Research and Development Center. Scaling up the power by more than 300x brought many practical challenges and surprises, including a moment when the generator was on fire and an episode similar to “aircrash investigation.” In this talk, I will share our journey and discuss the architecture along with results from the high-power testbed.
Bio:
Dr. Arijit Banerjee is currently an Associate Professor in the department. He joined Illinois in 2017 after completing his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. Before MIT, he worked at General Electric Global Research Center in Bangalore, India. His research interest lies at the intersection of power electronics, electric machines, and control with applications to various energy conversion systems.
banerjee.ece.illinois.edu/