Wind turbine generators having wind assisted cooling systems and cooling methods

摘要

A wind generator (10) includes: a nacelle (16); a hub (12) rotatably carried by the nacelle and including at least a pair of wind turbine blades (14); and an electricity producing generator including a stator (22,26) and a rotor (24,28) carried by the nacelle. The rotor is connected to the hub and rotatable in response to wind acting on the blades to rotate the rotor relative to the stator to generate electricity. A cooling system is carried by the nacelle (16) and includes at least one ambient air inlet port (46) opening through a surface of the nacelle downstream of the hub and blades, and a duct (44) for flowing air from the inlet port in a generally upstream direction toward the hub and in cooling relation to the stator.