Superconductors: Solving the grid build-out challenge
By Marie Hayden & Jay Vitha
The lack of sufficient capacity on our aging power grid is stalling the connection of new renewable energy resources and the much-needed expansion of our urban grids and is rapidly becoming one of the biggest impediments to reaching our climate targets. Utilities are working to build out capacity, but permitting, project costs, and right of way issues are causing major delays.
With so many competing pressures facing our power grid, it’s clear we need more tangible solutions, and we need them fast.
Enter high-power superconducting wire (HTS). This advanced wire can transmit over 250 times more power than traditional copper wire. When it’s made into power cables, it increases capacity tenfold while simultaneously cutting line loss by more than a third. HTS wire transfers gigawatts of electricity at lower voltages, dramatically reducing right of way requirements and overall project costs.
Advanced technologies like HTS are already being deployed across the globe to deliver more power, more efficiently and they have a significant role to play in addressing some of the biggest problems facing grid operators, clean energy developers, and utilities here in the US.
Here are four ways we can use HTS to build the modern, efficient grid we need to achieve our critical climate change goals:
1. Powering urban centers
Large urban areas, where electrification of transportation and buildings is increasing demand for power, are primary targets for HTS. This is due to some important characteristics: power lines are already underground, rights-of-way are very limited, and construction and land are very expensive. Imagine having the option to reduce the land required while dramatically increasing the capacity to transfer power?
One HTS cable can carry the same amount of power as five or more traditional cables, dramatically reducing the land required to add capacity to the urban network. Using HTS for this essential application has already been demonstrated in projects around the world, including in Germany, Korea, and Japan.
2. Renewable interconnection backlogs
There’s a massive amount of clean energy waiting to connect to the US power grid. This interconnection backlog is the product of a few factors. First, permitting is currently time-consuming, difficult, and costly. On top of that, renewable resources are often located adjacent to weak parts of the grid that need reinforcing.
How can we get this power onto our system effectively? Low-voltage HTS cables with high power transfer capacity can cover much longer distances than traditional cables and can economically connect renewable energy projects to the parts of the grid that do have capacity.
3. EV fleet charging
How do we pull power off the system to a location that has never needed that capacity before? This will become a critical issue very soon as we electrify large fleets and long-haul trucking – those highway truck stops and charging depots will need the power of a small town. At the same time, major delivery retailers like Amazon are electrifying their massive fleets, and all those vehicles will need to be charged.
HTS will be essential because you can carry up to 10 times the power with basically zero line loss. Plus, permitting may be faster when you are dealing with low-voltage connections. In Paris, officials are using HTS to bring more electricity to their railway stations; in the US, we can use it to power our EV stations.
4. Offshore wind
State and federal commitments to offshore wind total a staggering 110,000 MW by 2050 (today we have only seven turbines installed, totaling just 42 MW). It’s a massive and expensive undertaking to meet these installation targets and deliver the power back to consumers onshore, but the resource is too valuable to ignore. Building a new power grid in the ocean presents numerous challenges related to cost and construction, but it’s also an opportunity to start from scratch and build a modern, efficient grid. It is vital that we optimize construction of this new grid from the outset by using the very best technologies the US has to offer, like HTS.
Looking ahead
MetOx is one of a handful of companies leading the world in HTS technology and is the leading US producer scaling its manufacturing to meet the needs of the energy transition.
Bringing HTS to where it’s needed in the US requires utilities and developers to approach grid planning with a different mindset. If they look at solutions based on the current they can carry, instead of automatically choosing a higher voltage option, they can reduce the amount and scale of new infrastructure required. This, in turn, helps mitigate permitting delays, rights-of-way challenges, costs, and lead times. Using advanced wires offers this option in a way traditional cables simply cannot and will greatly speed up the process of building out our power networks.
This fall, MetOx is opening a new plant in Houston, Texas that will manufacture 1,000 km of superconducting tape per year. Working in partnership with world-leading cable and transformer manufacturers and innovative US utilities and developers, we will continue to accelerate the rollout of HTS across the US grid.