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The turbine nacelle with traditional wind power generation system is heavy, especially in offshore applications due to the large mass of the power frequency step-up transformer operated at 50 or 60 Hz, and copper conductor generator. For example, the weight and volume of a 0.69/33 kV 2.6 MVA transformer are typically in the range of 6-8 t and 5-9 m 3 , respectively. The weight for a 10 MW direct drive permanent magnet generator is about 300 t. These penalties significantly increase the tower construction, and turbine installation and maintenance costs. The tower cost represents 26% of the total component cost of the turbine and on average about 20% of the capital costs are associated with installation. Typical maintenance cost of an offshore wind turbine is about 2.3 cents/kWh, which is 20% higher than that of an onshore based turbine. As alternative approaches to achieve a compact and lightweight offshore wind turbine nacelle, different concepts have been proposed in recent years, such as step-up-transformer-less system, medium-frequency (in the range of a few kHz to MHz) power transformer-based system, multilevel and modular matrix converter-based system and superconducting generator-based system. This paper aims to review the challenges, current research and development trends, possible future directions of the research to reduce the weight and volume of the nacelle. In addition, a comprehensive review of traditional wind power generation technologies is conducted in this article as well. Keywords:Offshore wind farm, power generation, research and development, compact and lightweight nacelle 2

In this paper, a highly sensitive graphene-based multiple-layer (BK7/Au/PtSe2/Graphene) coated surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor is proposed for the rapid detection of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). The proposed sensor was modeled on the basis of the total internal reflection (TIR) technique for real-time detection of ligand-analyte immobilization in the sensing region. The refractive index (RI) of the sensing region is changed due to the interaction of different concentrations of the ligand-analyte, thus impacting surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) excitation of the multi-layer sensor interface. The performance of the proposed sensor was numerically investigated by using the transfer matrix method (TMM) and the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The proposed SPR biosensor provides fast and accurate early-stage diagnosis of the COVID-19 virus, which is crucial in limiting the spread of the pandemic. In addition, the performance of the proposed sensor was investigated numerically with different ligand-analytes: (i) the monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) as ligand and the COVID-19 virus spike receptor-binding domain (RBD) as analyte, (ii) the virus spike RBD as ligand and the virus anti-spike protein (IgM, IgG) as analyte and (iii) the specific probe as ligand and the COVID-19 virus single-standard ribonucleic acid (RNA) as analyte. After the investigation, the sensitivity of the proposed sensor was found to provide 183.33°/refractive index unit (RIU) in SPR angle (θSPR) and 833.33THz/RIU in SPR frequency (SPRF) for detection of the COVID-19 virus spike RBD; the sensitivity obtained 153.85°/RIU in SPR angle and 726.50THz/RIU in SPRF for detection of the anti-spike protein, and finally, the sensitivity obtained 140.35°/RIU in SPR angle and 500THz/RIU in SPRF for detection of viral RNA. It was observed that whole virus spike RBD detection sensitivity is higher than that of the other two detection processes. Highly sensitive two-dimensional (2D) materials were used to achieve significant enhancement in the Goos-Hänchen (GH) shift detection sensitivity and plasmonic properties of the conventional SPR sensor. The proposed sensor successfully senses the COVID-19 virus and offers additional (1 + 0.55) × L times sensitivity owing to the added graphene layers. Besides, the performance of the proposed sensor was analyzed based on detection accuracy (DA), the figure of merit (FOM), signal-noise ratio (SNR), and quality factor (QF). Based on its performance analysis, it is expected that the proposed sensor may reduce lengthy procedures, false positive results, and clinical costs, compared to traditional sensors. The performance of the proposed sensor model was checked using the TMM algorithm and validated by the FDTD technique.

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Recently, medium (0.1-5 MW) and large scale (> 5 MW) photovoltaic (PV) power plants have attracted great attention, where medium voltage grid (typically 6-36 kV) connection is essential for efficient power transmission and distribution. A power frequency transformer operated at 50 or 60 Hz is generally used to step-up the traditional inverter's output low voltage (usually ≤ 400 V) into medium voltage level, as the medium voltage PV inverter has not been developed yet. Because of the heavy weight and large size of the power frequency transformer, the PV inverter system can be expensive and complex for installation and maintenance. As an alternative approach to achieve a compact and lightweight direct grid connection, a three-phase medium voltage PV inverter system is proposed in this paper. The 11 kV and 33 kV PV inverter systems are designed. A scaled down 3-phase 1.2 kV test rig is constructed to validate the proposed PV inverter. The experimental results are analyzed and discussed taking into account the switching schemes and filter circuits. The experimental results demonstrate the excellent feature of the proposed PV inverter system.

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