Patent ID: 8008798

Claim:
A wind turbine having a drivetrain, said drivetrain comprising: a gearbox comprising a gearbox housing, at least one gear stage and an output shaft rotatably coupled within said housing, said at least one gear stage exerting an axial thrust force on said output shaft during operation of said wind turbine; a generator comprising a generator housing and an input shaft, the input shaft of said generator connected to the output shaft of said gearbox, the generator further comprising a stator and a rotor, said stator coupled to said generator housing, said rotor coupled to said input shaft such that said rotor is positioned radially inward from said stator, the generator including stator windings and rotor windings; at least one bearing shared between the gearbox output shaft and the generator input shaft, said at least one bearing carrying at least a portion of said axial thrust force; wherein the stator windings or the rotor windings are skewed to exert an opposing axial thrust force on said input shaft, so that the axial thrust force carried by said at least one bearing is reduced.