Nanotechnologies to Enable High‐Performance Superconductors for Energy Applications

Abstract

High Temperature Superconductors (HTS) wires or coated conductors (CC) hold promise to revolutionize the transmission of electricity enabling the present electric grid to meet the world's growing energy needs. Although superconducting wires can carry 150 times more power than copper wires of the same cross section, further performance improvements are necessary for the superconducting technology to become costcompetitive. This objective can be achieved by introducing and controlling nano-sized defects and non-superconducting phases within the superconducting film's matrix. Such nanostructures, when carefully engineered, significantly increase the loss-free current sustained by the superconductor through a mechanism known as flux pinning. This chapter is a review of the various types of nanostructures that are artificially introduced in superconducting films to enhance the superconductor's performance. Different approaches, materials, and techniques are discussed and the most recent results in this field compared. The last section of this chapter discusses an additional example of 2 nanotechnology employment in superconducting wires. This nanotechnology can be regarded as an atomic surface treatment designed to enable the right crystallographic orientation of the superconducting film deposited on the metal template. Overcoming limitations to superconductors' performanceEfficient transport and storage of energy are two key factors in the formidable quest to meet the world's growing energy needs. Because electricity is the energy form of choice for most uses, and the most effective way to transport energy from and to different locations, addressing the energy problem means necessarily addressing the shortcomings of the present electric power grid. Capacity and reliability of the present grid are entirely inadequate to accommodate an expected growth in energy demand of 50% by the year 2030, most of which will be concentrated in urbanized areas whose infrastructures are already severely congested. In addition, 7 -10 % of the electricity generated is lost in the grid by heat dissipation, and transmission limitations have already caused black outs throughout the world. Superconducting cables made with high critical temperature (T c ) cuprate superconductors have the potential to transform the grid to meet the 21 st century demands. Such cables can carry five times more power then copper cables with the same cross section and exhibit considerable lower losses (loss-free dc transmission). Because lower losses enable longer transmission lengths, superconductors provide the best choice for building a new, non-fragmented, super grid that will enable massive long-distance power transmission, interconnect entire continents, and provide widespread, local energy storage. In such a grid, renewable source power plants in the most remote areas can deliver power anywhere in the continent according to real time demands, and episodic 3 surpluses are readily stored for future use. High temperature superconducting (HTS) cabl...