Description of capability
Large-scale magnets capable of high magnetic fields, typically using superconducting tape such as REBCO superconducting material. This benefits from High-field magnet design.
Key people
John Brisson Dongkeun Park Zach Hartwig
Technology Readiness Level (1-9)
5
Needs that this could potentially address
Not sure yet. But applications include:
- Nuclear fusion
- Energy storage (for example in the form of Superconducting magnetic energy storage systems)
- Electric Transmission, including power cables, Better fault current limiters for power grid, and transformers
- Wind turbines and other generators (e.g. MHD generators)
- Electric motors
- Superconducting magnetic energy storage systems
- Hyperion Transport Systems
Tech specs
Estimated time & cost to commercialize
Outstanding risks
- Foreign competition
- Commodification: reel-to-reel technologies get cheap really fast.
- Bob Mumgaard expressed some concern with commercial applications of High-temperature superconducting magnets, for several reasons: - CFS owns a lot of the IP - REBCO superconducting material is too expensive for most commercial applications - His team has found that most of the applications would involve putting a new component in a bigger system (e.g. Better generators in wind turbines, Portable MRI for ambulatory medical diagnostics), and that the OEMs of these bigger systems (wind turbines, MRIs) are not eager to adopt these supposedly new components unless there is a full proof of concept of the better system. You may need to build the better system yourself, i.e. start a wind turbine company rather than a wind turbine generator company. That takes a lot of capital and many years.
- Zach Hartwig cautioned that there isn’t a great market for cables today. There are a few mom & pop shops like Advanced Conductor Technologies in Colorado. The market is small, the tape is expensive.
References
- Marchionini, Brian G., Yutaka Yamada, Luciano Martini, and Hiroyuki Ohsaki. “High-Temperature Superconductivity: A Roadmap for Electric Power Sector Applications, 2015–2030.” IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity 27, no. 4 (June 2017): 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1109/TASC.2017.2671680.