The Quest for Energy
June / July 2004
Volume 2 Number 3
While the nation is preoccupied with hostile threats from abroad, it is easy to forget that other, less-publicized issues threaten to undermine our national security and well-being. Chief among these are the intertwined issues of energy production and the environment. The nation's security and economic stability rely on sufficient energy supplies and environmentally sound energy production and use. Parts of the U.S. have already experienced shortages as demand for electricity increases far more rapidly than new generating capacity; 52 percent of the nation's primary transportation fuel source is imported from an unstable foreign market (projections show those imports at 70 percent by 2020).
Furthermore, increases in atmospheric carbon caused by energy production and use threaten to change the climate. The potentially disastrous implications of such change are little understood at present. These factors could erode the nation's economy, security, and quality of life. But the story is not all bleak. These trends can be reversed with the nation's vast scientific and technological resources, many of which reside at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Los Alamos is applying its multidisciplinary expertise to national problems in energy security, such as:
—€ Ensuring a stable, non-polluting supply of energy
—€ Modeling and understanding climate variability
—€ Preventing carbon emissions from entering or remaining in the atmosphere
—€ Increasing the safety and viability of nuclear energy production
—€ Ensuring an abundant and clean supply of water
—€ Modernizing and increasing the efficiency of the nation's energy infrastructure
Advances in infrastructure efficiency alone would greatly reduce the consumption of fuels used to generate electricity and the resultant emissions of greenhouse gases. One technology that will spur an enormous leap in infrastructure efficiency is high-temperature superconductivity, and Los Alamos's international leadership in superconductivity research and development is accelerating the deployment of this promising technology.
Ten percent of electricity generated in the U.S. each year (300 million kilowatt hours) is lost due to resistance of the copper and aluminum wiring currently used to transmit power across the nation's electrical grid. The energy lost is enough to supply the combined energy needs of New Mexico, Arizona, California and Oregon. Superconductors, materials that have no electrical resistance when cooled with liquid nitrogen, can carry up to 100 times the electricity of ordinary copper or aluminum wires of the same size. Superconducting tape developed at Los Alamos can carry 200 times the capacity of copper. These materials can be used in many electric power applications, such as transmission lines, industrial motors and generators, fault-current limiters, and transformers. Superconductivity will have a dramatic economic impact. The electricity saved by superconductor cables could equal $4 billion per year.
Until very recently, superconducting materials were not advanced enough to be commercially viable. Low-temperature superconductors proved uneconomical since they required expensive, liquid helium cryogenics to reach zero resistance. But high-temperature superconductors, discovered in 1986, operate in the relatively warmer, and much cheaper, environment of liquid nitrogen. The key to applying superconductivity to energy security is developing a strong and flexible high-temperature superconducting wire capable of carrying large currents in magnetic fields. At Los Alamos, this objective has led to two parallel efforts that focus on two different superconducting compounds known as BSSCO and YBCO.
The first technique to yield good superconducting wire was the oxide-powder-in-tube method in which oxide powders of BSSCO are loaded into silver or sliver alloy tubes, sealed, and then drawn or extruded into round wire. The round wire is then thermally processed to form a superconducting composite, or it is further rolled to produce a flat tape which is then thermally processed to produce a superconductor. Most of the conductors produced with the BSCCO materials are made in the tape form. These conductors are closer to commercialization than the YBCO conductors.
YBCO conductors, known as "coated conductors" or "second generation" wires, promise better performance in high magnetic fields, higher temperature operation, and lower cost compared to BSCCO wires. However, the drawing and rolling technique for producing BSCCO wire does not work well for YBCO wire, so Los Alamos has developed new techniques to produce practical lengths of YBCO wire.
To advance these technologies and move them quickly out of the lab to the electric grid, the Superconductivity Technology Center was established, a 10,000 sq. ft. research facility that coordinates a multidisciplinary program in research, development, and technology transfer in collaboration with industry, universities, and other national laboratories. Research areas include wire and system development, powder synthesis, processing of tapes and coils, deposition of thin and thick films, characterization of micro-structural and superconducting properties, power cryogenic engineering, and fabrication of prototype devices.
In comparison to conventional technologies, superconductivity power equipment will typically be half the size and have half the energy losses. The Department of Energy estimates that about 2,200 miles of existing underground cables are rapidly becoming outdated and could potentially be replaced with high-temperature superconductive lines. However, implementation will be an expensive undertaking because the cost of superconductor cable can be four times the cost of conventional copper cable. Because utility companies are primarily concerned with cost recovery, the price of superconducting cable must drop considerably before the technology becomes more widespread.
Some experts believe that commercialization could start in as soon as three to five years as more money is invested, newer prototypes are developed, and the technology gains new economies of scale to decrease the cost. The main focus of DOE's superconductivity program is to address barriers to widespread implementation of the technology, including cost. Now that reliability of the nation's transmission grid is at the forefront of national security policy, superconductivity could soon be adopted into mainstream applications. High-temperature superconductors will dramatically enhance the nation's energy security by increasing the efficiency and reliability of the electrical power grid.
Anthony Mancino is with the Office of Energy and Environment Initiatives, Los Alamos National Laboratory.
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