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from the superconductor-in-Spanish-is-superconductor dept.
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, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 17 2017, @01:54PM (3 children)
"that conducts 100 times more electricity than copper..."
No shit, that's why it's called SUPERconductor.
No comparison with other superconducting materials
No reasons given for calling it "breakthrough"
Most likely, possibly a minor improvement blown up to seek more funding.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Soylentbob on Friday March 17 2017, @03:02PM (2 children)
I'm not a specialist, so please correct me if I'm wrong. The article mentions nitrogen for cooling, and emphasize that they created a 600m wire. From what I understand, most high-temperature superconductors are ceramics, and therefore brittle, which is hard to handle for wires. Not sure, how many companies are able to produce high-temperature superconducting wires at volume, but I think that is the goal here.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 17 2017, @05:04PM (1 child)
TFA left most facts about their research out. Most critically the article didn't mention what temperature their tape goes superconducting. Room Temperature? Liquid Nitrogen required?
(Score: 1) by Soylentbob on Friday March 17 2017, @05:19PM
From TFA:
To achieve zero-loss power transmission now, cables encased in tubes can be cooled with liquid nitrogen to make them superconductive—but the complex and expensive technology has not been commercially used on a large scale.
Since it started some more generic comments some lines ago, I'm not certain if this is supposed to refer to the product in question or is a more general statement, though.