4 ms·
>power transmission without loss. Very long range power transmission becomes viable and low cost (buried cables near roads?). For instance, solar energy transmi
by idiotsecant 3y ago
>power transmission without loss. Very long range power transmission becomes viable and low cost (buried cables near roads?). For instance, solar energy transmitted in real time from where the sun shines to where it is dark or cloudy.
For practical purposes this is only true if the cost of the material and support systems for the superconducting transmission is substantially less than the cost of the power lost in the existing system. Existing power transmission systems are already quite efficient, and we don't bother making them more efficient with HVDC because the infrastructure costs don't justify the power savings. It's almost certainly the case that superconductor cable would be significantly more expensive than that.
What we really need is more capacity, which this material as presented doesn't seem to help with.
- criddell 3y ago> What we really need is more capacity, which this material as presented doesn't seem to help with. I thought one of the benefits of superconducting wires was that they could carry a lot more. Is that generally not true of superconductors?
- paholg 3y agoI believe one of the properties of the alleged room-temperature suoercinductor is that it's only a superconductor at low currents.
- madsciencetist 3y agoSuperconductors have zero resistance up to some quench current, so you can’t just put infinite current through a superconductor. If the quench current is low, the superconductor is not practical. Even practical superconductors might have a quench current only 4x what you’d put through traditional copper before the ohmic losses become too high.