F2020 AlvaWind - Scalable Production of Lightweight Wind Turbine Generators

The Research Council of Norway has supported a project to develop a new type of wind power generator developed by a team of researchers from Trondheim. The project, called "F2020 AlvaWind" was initiated by the NTNU-based start-up Alva Industries AS, which sprung out of the NTNU School of Entreprenurship in 2016. Alva is commercialising a new production method for the main component in electric motors and generators. Instead of using conventional methods and materials, Alva uses a new production technology to make a new composite material that replaces the iron, steel and copper parts in the generator. This enables new designs with low weight and high energy efficiency. The technology can be used to produce components in a wide variety of sizes and applications. "Wind power is the perfect industry for us to commercialise our technology in. There are many wind turbine manufacturers already using ironless generators, and they can improve their systems very simply and quickly by switching some of their components to our alternatives. After wind, we want to expand to other industries where weight and efficiency are key words, such as electric aerospace propulsion systems." says founder and CEO of Alva, Jørgen Selnes. Even though Alva is targeting small wind turbines for their first market, Selnes explains that his company has ambitions to also develop larger generator sizes after the F2020 AlvaWind project: "The big goal is to get our technology into megawatt-range turbines, but to get to that point, we need to demonstrate that it works on a smaller scale. Wind power is a big and heavy industry, and it can be conservative with new technologies. Luckily, we have received interest from a lot of manufacturers of small wind turbines, so we can develop a generator that can both be marketed and sold as a stand-alone product, and functions as a scaled down model for larger generator sizes. In that way, we are doing two things with one project in F2020 AlvaWind."