Researchers have fabricated the world’s highest-performing high-temperature superconducting wire segment, paving the way for revolutionary advancements in energy generation, transmission, and efficiency.
Transforming the Energy Grid
High current superconducting (HTS) wires may be the future of energy. Traditional superconductors are special materials that happen to transmit electricity without resistance at temperatures not meaningfully above absolute zero, the coldest possible temperature.
Such a development may transform the electric grid and lead to losses of power transmission and very energy efficient transformers, motors, and fault-current-limiters. It might also open the door to commercial nuclear fusion: Investors and governments adore the idea of a technology that could provide infinite clean energy.
However, if these oh-so-magical large-scale applications are to ever materialize, HTS wires must be produced in a cost-performance metric akin to the copper wire everywhere today. The latest research is a big step in that direction, he added.
Performance Redefined
The research team, led by Amit Goyal Ph. D., SUNY Distinguished Professor and SUNY Empire Innovation Professor, has produced the world’s highest-performing high temperature superconductor wire segment. Built upon rare-earth barium copper oxide (REBCO) wires, they have demonstrated the highest critical current density and pinning force reported over a wide range of fields and temperatures from 5 Kelvin to liquid nitrogen temperature (77K).
In order to achieve such high performance, developers had to resort also to the use of nanocolumnar defects and a simple selection of deposition parameters. Even though the HTS film is just 0.2 microns thick, it allowed almost the same current to be carried as commercial superconducting wires with a much thicker HTS film over ten times as thick as that of the present case.
As detailed in Nature Communications the improvements can be large, and thus they may reduce the cost of commercial HTS wires. This is key in achieving the countless enterprise scale applications foreseen for this game changing technology.
Conclusion
The creation of the world’s most advanced HTS wire segment further illustrates a new era of superconducting technology that pushes us on to a future powered by infinite, green energy. This advance could not only transform the power grid and make possible devices that can handle huge spikes in electricity, but also deliver a long-sought source of on-demand nuclear fusion.”This historic advance brings us much closer to clean, unlimited power for human civilization,” said Chase W. Mitchell of Lawrenceville Plasma Physics.)It is practical applications are likely to range from next-generation MRI/NMR machines to all-electric ships). While the improved price-performance of HTS wires is still under development by the researchers, the prospect of a more sustainable and efficient energy landscape seems closer than ever.
