ICEC 23 - ICMC 2010
07/29/10: Talk & Paper posted below
Conference Web Site

Superconductivity in Power Applications

"A Sober Assessment of Opportunities and Realities"

Plenary Talk
ICEC 23 – ICMC 2010
Wroclaw, Poland
8:30 – 9:15 AM
Thursday, 22 July 2010

Paul Michael Grant
Principal, W2AGZ Technologies
Visiting Scholar in Applied Physics, Stanford University (2005-2008)
EPRI Science Fellow (Retired)
IBM Research Staff Member Emeritus
http://www.w2agz.com
http://www.w2agz.com/BD_WROC10.htm (this page)

Contents

PRESENTATION ABSTRACT:
   Next year, 2011, will witness the 100^th anniversary of the original discovery of superconductivity in mercury at 4.2 K in liquid helium by Gilles Holst at the University of Leiden and will also mark a quarter-century since Georg Bednorz’ initial measurements in IBM Zuerich on a series of layered copper oxide perovskites obtained critical temperatures approaching 40 K, ushering in the era of “high temperature superconductivity.”  In early 1987, M. K. Wu at the University of Alabama found a member of this family exhibiting zero resistance at 91 K, 14 degrees above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen, enabling the use of this cheap and widely employed cryogen to support potential  future applications of superconductivity.
   From the very earliest days following its initial discovery, the hope arose that this new phenomenon might eventually drastically reduce, and perhaps even eliminate, ohmic losses in electrical power equipment, from transmission lines to rotating machinery.  However, it was not until the decade of the 1950s that superconductors, so-called “Type II,” sufficiently robust to withstand the large currents and magnetic fields encountered in power applications, were developed.  Since that time, perhaps more than fifty demonstrations and prototypes of superconducting power equipment, using both low and high temperature materials, have been successfully carried out worldwide, and several, primarily cables, have actually been placed in utility service, although as yet, none permanently.
   In this talk, I will point out that superconducting power technology is now essentially “on the shelf” awaiting deployment by the industry, much in the same way that silicon-based power electronics has been waiting for more than a decade in anticipation the development of a “smart grid.”  I will maintain that deployment of superconducting power applications is not necessarily cost-limited, but rather lacks at present a compelling economic, political and societal impetus to carry such out on a broad scale.  I will address those factors within the emerging energy society (e.g., a nuclear revival, the aggressive pursuit and insertion of energy efficient technologies, etc.) that could accelerate its acceptance. 
   Finally, with the far future in mind, I will outline a carbon-free, non-eco-invasive energy economy where not only is superconductivity used for the transmission of electrical power, but also the cryogen itself, in the form of  liquid or supercritical hydrogen or methane, as an agent to transmit chemical power as well.

References (In Chronological Order)

PUBLICATION ABSTRACT:
  This paper will attempt a broad, concise and sober assessment of the opportunities and realities confronting future power applications of superconductivity.  Although current activity is indeed international in scope, we will focus principally on the United States inasmuch it is there that most development has and is taking place.  Moreover, we will concentrate on potential electric utility driven deployment of superconducting cables, rotating machinery and power conditioning equipment in that country.  We will conclude that major market penetration will not likely occur for decades to come, if ever.  Having said that, it is still possible that superconductivity could play a significant role as part of a redirection of power generation to new nuclear fission cluster sites, remotely sited natural gas reserves and massive renewable energy production. Such a scenario would be driven more by social and political policy than from future economic or technology developments in superconductivity itself.

Linkable References Only

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An Anthology Tribute to Wroclaw
on the Occasion of ICEC 23 - ICMC 2010

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