Super cables

This could be the answer for efficient transmission of electricity across short distances in dense urban settings. Superconducting cables are going to be deployed on a pilot case across a few miles in the US.

These are cables that house low resistance wire in the pipes chilled with liquid nitrogen, to temperatures of – 321 deg F when the wires offer least resistance to the current. Hence, they are able to move large amounts of energy in a small space and more efficiently.

Superconductors are materials whose resistance to flow of current suddenly drops to near zero at low temperatures. Research has been looking at materials that can exhibit this property at room temperatures.

Power losses are said to be reduced by about two thirds with superconducting. Currently, wire designed by American Superconductor is being used by three utilities — Long Island Power Authority, American Electric Power Co. and National Grid—in small projects in New York and Ohio. The distances are short and voltages aren’t as high as what would be necessary to move large sums of electricity as from wind farms on the Great Plains to large cities.

Being underground, these cables would not require land clearance through its path.
Costing $8 million per mile for a single superconducting cable capable of carrying 5,000 megawatts of electricity and $13 million per mile for two pipes able to move 10,000 megawatts, the cost of 765-kv transmission towers and lines is estimated at $7 million to $10 million per mile.

Cutting losses is one way of conserving power, cutting consumption is another. And that is where innovations like the rice husk refrigerator could score one up over superconducting cables. What would you say?