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>> In a world of finite energy resources, the elimination of any inefficiencies can benefit everyone: energy providers, distributors, and consumers at all level
by lovemenot 4y ago
>> In a world of finite energy resources, the elimination of any inefficiencies can benefit everyone: energy providers, distributors, and consumers at all levels
Furthermore, a super-conducting belt around the Earth would greatly mitigate solar and wind energy's Achilles heel; intermittency.
Renewable power, generated elsewhere, could become accessible in the calm of a windless night. Grid storage? Thanks, no need.
- contravariant 4y agoFor a moment I thought you were saying it would mitigate solar wind. Which it won't, far from it.
- wrycoder 4y agoConsider a superconducting belt laid under the oceans, carrying a large fraction of civilization’s power needs. Consider what would happen if the technology failed, and it suddenly transitioned to normal conduction. Sounds like a great SF story, even if the actual effect is minimal. (I haven’t done the back of the envelope calculation :)
- Gud 4y agoPresumably the relay protection would trip the breaker for over current. Essentially they would function like HVDC cables, and we already operate plenty of those.
- BobbyH 4y agoThis is actually the plot behind Larry Niven's Ringworld! A gigantic civilization has created a Ringworld (a rotating wheel artificial world), until a superconducting plague (https://news.larryniven.net/concordance/main.asp?alpha=S#superconductorplague https://news.larryniven.net/concordance/main.asp?alpha=S#sup...) destroys the material that enables room-temperature superconductivity, thus reducing the entire Ringworld to the dark ages...
- nullc 4y ago> generated elsewhere, Why generated elsewhere? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconducting_magnetic_energy_storage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconducting_magnetic_energ...
- klyrs 4y agoI've heard this proposed somewhat seriously for Mars, to provide for its lacking magnetosphere.