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HVDC uses ordinary resistive conductors at high voltage. There's no superconducting wire involved. EDIT: I see that you might have been wondering about this se

HVDC uses ordinary resistive conductors at high voltage. There's no superconducting wire involved. EDIT: I see that you might have been wondering about this sentence from the article: "In addition, researchers are exploring different types of semiconductors to improve the cost and performance of circuit breakers and voltage converters, Sivaram says, and working on superconducting cables that could boost power capacity and cut energy losses to nearly zero." Wide-bandgap semiconductors like silicon carbide and gallium nitride are already working their way into high power applications. Superconducting energy transmission is much further from industrialization.

newnewpdro 9y ago
It's been on my radar that HTS wire is now commercially available and has already made an impact in the planned development of dramatically smaller fusion reactors. I also read reports of their use in massive electric motors used by navy vessels. Basically all these massive electromagnets can be made smaller, more powerful, and more efficient thanks to HTS wire. They're already being used in the Tres Amigas project [1], though I haven't investigated what the scope of the application is there. I assumed it would be the power transmission since it seems likely to have the greatest losses due to the distance. It's clearly stated that American Superconductor is supplying the HTS wire for the project. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tres_Amigas_SuperStation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tres_Amigas_SuperStation
- philipkglass 9y ago
  The plan at Tres Amigas was to use superconducting equipment and short-range superconducting cables on the interconnection site. It's not replacing any long-range transmission with superconducting wire. You can see a diagram in the lower left of this article: http://www.tresamigasllc.com/docs/HTS-Cable-TA-Energy-Industry-Times-Nov-2010.pdf http://www.tresamigasllc.com/docs/HTS-Cable-TA-Energy-Indust... I say Tres Amigas "was" going to do this because the project seems dead. It lost a major partner in 2015, scaled back a lot, and the project site hasn't posted any updates since 2016.
  - newnewpdro 9y ago
    Thanks for the link to the pdf, I hadn't read that.

newnewpdro 9y ago

It's been on my radar that HTS wire is now commercially available and has already made an impact in the planned development of dramatically smaller fusion reactors. I also read reports of their use in massive electric motors used by navy vessels. Basically all these massive electromagnets can be made smaller, more powerful, and more efficient thanks to HTS wire. They're already being used in the Tres Amigas project [1], though I haven't investigated what the scope of the application is there. I assumed it would be the power transmission since it seems likely to have the greatest losses due to the distance. It's clearly stated that American Superconductor is supplying the HTS wire for the project. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tres_Amigas_SuperStation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tres_Amigas_SuperStation

philipkglass 9y ago
The plan at Tres Amigas was to use superconducting equipment and short-range superconducting cables on the interconnection site. It's not replacing any long-range transmission with superconducting wire. You can see a diagram in the lower left of this article: http://www.tresamigasllc.com/docs/HTS-Cable-TA-Energy-Industry-Times-Nov-2010.pdf http://www.tresamigasllc.com/docs/HTS-Cable-TA-Energy-Indust... I say Tres Amigas "was" going to do this because the project seems dead. It lost a major partner in 2015, scaled back a lot, and the project site hasn't posted any updates since 2016.
- newnewpdro 9y ago
  Thanks for the link to the pdf, I hadn't read that.