Technological Trends for Electrical Machines and Drives Used in Small Wind Power Plants—A Review

High-power-range wind generators mainly employ classical variants, with the advantages of low cost, high robustness and acceptable energetic performance, while for low-power applications, the available electrical drive solutions are more numerous. This paper investigates the current trend in this field, indicating simple or complex structures, with or without self-excitation and with or without mechanical or magnetic transmission. The discussed variants are compared in terms of complexity, cost, fault-tolerance capability and estimated energetic performances but also the grid connectivity for standard conditions. The review is completed by testing options and conditions, as well as the methods for parameter determination, which have an important effect on the controllability of the entire system.