Scientists just fabricated a high-temperature superconducting wire carrying electrical current density 100 times greater than copper conductors while losing absolutely zero energy to resistance — operating at minus 196 degrees Celsius using liquid nitrogen cooling commercially available at lower cost than gasoline per liter.
A team from SuperPower Inc and Brookhaven National Laboratory produced a rare-earth barium copper oxide coated conductor tape 4 millimeters wide achieving critical current density of 10 to the power of 7 amperes per square centimeter at 77 Kelvin in a 1 Tesla magnetic field — 100 times copper's safe current density limit. The wire operates at liquid nitrogen temperature rather than near absolute zero — reducing cooling costs by 99% compared to conventional superconductors requiring liquid helium.
A single 4-millimeter superconducting tape replaces a copper cable bundle 400 millimeters in diameter for equivalent current capacity — reducing underground power transmission infrastructure to 1% of its current physical size. Transmission losses across a 1,000-kilometer superconducting grid line measure exactly zero — compared to 5 to 8% loss in conventional copper grids over the same distance.
Source: SuperPower Inc, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Applied Physics Letters, 2024
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