Meet Three Teams Competing To Build Better Power Lines and Conductors To Supercharge Our Clean Energy Future
Enhanced conductor systems could deliver that. These conductor upgrades could help the country save energy and infrastructure costs. For example, with better conductor systems, we might not need as many power lines. And that means, the United States could avoid having toTo accelerate the deployment of these improved conductor systems, the U.S.
We talked to all three to hear how they plan to build better conductor systems—or even superconductors—to supercharge transmission lines, wind turbines, MRI machines, electric motors, airplanes, and more.Most of today’s transmission lines are built from aluminum wrapped around a steel core. That strong interior protects these lines from sagging in high winds, heavy snows, or simply the passage of time, but it can also make the entire line less efficient.
As the country builds more wind and solar power plants—which are often constructed in remote locations where the winds blow hardest and the sun shines brightest—the country will need more transmission lines to shepherd all that electricity where it needs to go. For example, those magnetic coils inside MRI machines can only operate in extreme cold . If researchers can create superconductors that can operate in temperatures that are evenAnd that is exactly what Matt Rindfleisch, an engineering manager at Hyper Tech Research Inc., and The MgB2 Crewe are trying to achieve. “MgB2 could compete head-to-head with the wire that’s in the current MRI machines,” Rindfleisch said.
Liquid hydrogen can easily help the MgB2 Crewe achieve that necessary temperature, and it is already hundreds of times cheaper than liquid helium. “Just being part of this prize is fun,” Rindfleisch said. “But these net-zero emissions initiatives are not only for the United States; they’re for the whole world.”Today, researchers and technology developers are racing to upgrade the country’s power lines and expand its transmission system so the U.S. grid can ingest more renewable energy. But there are two big barriers that can hinder these critical changes: time and cost.