AMSC Superconductor, a solutions provider serving wind and grid leaders worldwide, introduced a new class of Amperium® superconductor wire for power cable applications at the Applied Superconductivity Conference today. This new product delivers industry-leading performance, pricing, and production capacity, and AMSC anticipates that the breakthrough will decrease production costs for superconductor power cables and grow the addressable market for these systems across the globe.
AMSC is now offering brass-laminated 4.4 mm Amperium wire with demonstrated current carrying performance up to 200 amps. This is considered industry-leading performance for high-volume second generation (2G) high temperature superconductor (HTS) wire and compares with AMSC’s existing line of 70-100 amp wires. Similar to AMSC’s existing Amperium product line, the new wire has leading electrical, mechanical, and thermal properties.
While announcing the significant performance increase, AMSC acknowledged that the kiloamp-meter pricing of this cutting-edge laminated wire has been considerably reduced from the current mark set by AMSC’s existing Amperium product line. It is this price reduction that is expected to decrease the cost of superconductor power cables and expand the global addressable market.
“We believe increasing wire performance and reducing pricing can serve as catalysts for superconductor cable adoption,” said Jean-Maxime Saugrain, Corporate Vice President Technical at Nexans, a worldwide expert in the cable industry. “With years of successful superconductor cable demonstrations and in-grid experience behind us, we look forward to continuing our close collaboration with AMSC to grow our superconductors business and maximize global market penetration.”
There are a multitude of advantages provided by the use of superconductor power cables, most stemming from the fact that they can conduct up to 10 times the amount of power of conventional copper cables. When inserted into strategic locations within an urban power grid, superconductor power cables can deliver more power than conventional cables to help mitigate grid congestion. The new cables can also be used to replace overhead lines and are currently in the early stages of widespread adoption. Early users of the improved technology include China, Japan, South Korea, Germany, and the United States.
“This is an advance of tremendous importance for AMSC, its customers and the industry in general,” said AMSC President and Chief Executive Officer Daniel P. McGahn. “By improving our wire performance, significantly reducing volume pricing and maintaining our industry-leading production capacity, we are positioning our products to fulfill the promise of HTS. I would like to publicly extend my thanks and congratulations to our Massachusetts team for extending AMSC’s global leadership.”
For further information, please visit www.amsc.com
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