This paper presents design and control of a coreless axial flux permanent magnet synchronous generator for variable speed wind turbine application. The effect of design main parameters variation on the active material cost of the generator and its performance characteristics are investigated using sensitivity analysis, and the proper values of design parameters are chosen. The generator is modeled with 3-D Finite Element Method (FEM) and the validity of the design is evaluated. In the control method, the optimum torque values for different wind speeds are calculated to extract the maximum power from the variable speed wind turbine. In order to accurate modeling of the system and direct connection of the generator model in FEM to control system in Matlab-Simulink, the simplorer software is used. Using this software and the real model of the generator in FEM, are lead to more accurate results. The results show that the control system tracks the generator maximum power point with good dynamic response.