There’s an interesting article here about the situation with global supply of neodymium magnets. Price of Neodymium (Nd) has increased roughly tenfold in two years, but shows signs of leveling in recent weeks.
Thanks to Markus Hugentobler for sending me this link!
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From: Mike Allen
Subject: Re: A Wind Turbine Recipe Book
Date: 12 April 2013 10:53:18 BST
To: jytte
I recieved the book yesterday and when it arrived I thought ‘this isn’t worth £12’.
But how wrong I was once I’d opened the envelope and settled down to read the contents with a cup of coffee. 3 hours later the coffee was stone cold and I was still reading the book.
Loads of info to be getting on with.
I’ll email Hugh when my terbine is up and running with some pics.
Thanks a lot.
Michael.
What if companies depending on neodymium start to hoard these magnets? If so, the market for RES materials may remain volatile for years.
The article refers to very large turbines. PM alternators are getting to be popular because they can be used at variable speed and are more efficient, especially in low winds.
Unfortunately, the ‘air gap’ axial flux design that I like makes rather heavy use of magnets compared to designs where there is steel in the stator core. It has many advantages: low losses, easy starting and low reactive impedance. But it uses a lot of magnet material.
Yes a lot of people are getting interested in using ferrites, not only to reduce cost but also because they are less vulnerable to corrosion.
” (a wind turbine generator contains up to 500 kg of neodymium magnets).”, this is interesting, but if they use your axially fluxed model, will they be able to reduce the usage of NdFeB? or like what “Mr. Chris Olson” tried with Ferrites (say it 1000kgs), can’t that be achieved?