European researchers said Tuesday they had developed a cheaper and more efficient superconducting tape which could one day be used to double the potency of wind turbines.
Eurotapes, a European research project on superconductivity—the ability of certain materials to channel electricity with zero resistance and very little power loss—has produced 600 metres (1,968 feet) of the tape, said the coordinator of the project, Xavier Obradors, of the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona.
"This material, a copper oxide, is like a thread that conducts 100 times more electricity than copper. With this thread you can for example make cables to transport much more electricity or generate much more intense magnetic fields than today," he told AFP.
"This new material could be used to make more potent and lighter wind turbines," he added, predicting it will make it possible to manufacture wind turbines one day with double the potency than existing ones.
No graphene was involved in this announcement.
(Score: 1) by Soylentbob on Friday March 17 2017, @11:37AM (4 children)
Can someone more knowledgeable than me elaborate? Where does the power loss come from in this case? Is it the magnetic field cast by the current?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 17 2017, @03:39PM (1 child)
zero: limit n->inf 1/n
If they found a way to make it be absolute 0 resistance, we would be reading about that instead.
(Score: 1) by Soylentbob on Friday March 17 2017, @04:28PM
That is what I assumed, and why I checked on wikipedia [wikipedia.org] (which is usually accurate in those things)
Superconductivity is a phenomenon of exactly zero electrical resistance
(emphasize added)
Better conductivity by factor 100 doesn't even come close to 0...
(Score: 4, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Friday March 17 2017, @09:15PM
There is no power loss in the superconducting state. There is, however, a maximum current you can send through before superconductivity breaks down. AFAIK this is, indeed, because of the magnetic field of the current.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Saturday March 18 2017, @12:53AM
No direct power loss in the superconductor due to resistance, but any time you move any conducting object into or out of the magnetic field generated by the current you will get some power loss due to induced currents in the object. With decent design, this loss is far less than is lost in resistive conductors.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.