Plenary talk — European project and application of high Tc superconducting cable

High temperature superconducting (HTS) power cables can provide electric utilities with a new way to solve power distribution issues in densely populated urban areas. Compared to conventional cable technologies, based on copper or aluminum, HTS cables can either carry several times more power at the same voltage due to the huge current transport capacity of HTS materials which is more than 150 times that of copper, or carry the same amount of power at a lower voltage level. As long as the current carried by the cable is below the so-called critical current of the cable, HTS cables exhibit no ohmic power loss for direct currents and just very small losses for alternating currents (AC). High temperature superconductor materials typically used in cables are tapes with critical current densities of > 100 A/mm2 when cooled in liquid nitrogen. Consequently, cables made of these conductors can carry large currents within very small dimensions. In addition, HTS cables are especially suited for densely-populated areas as they do not exhibit any electromagnetic or thermal impact on the environment, and only require a very narrow right-of-way, basically limited to the cable itself.