Years After the Hype, Superconductors Ready to Deliver the Goods

This is part 2 of a column on superconductivity.

Power Player

Another player in the superconductor field is American Superconductor (AMSC Quote), which designs and manufactures superconductive high-power density wires, power electronic modules and electricity storage systems aimed at a $15-$20 billion annual market. Its goal is to revolutionize the way we use power. "Disruptive technology" guru, Harvard professor Clayton Christensen, is on its board of directors.

The company's core product -- silver-sheathed, powder-in-tube, multifilamentary composite HTS wire -- can carry 100 times the electrical current of similar-sized copper wiring. Through a complex process of bundling, extrusion, rolling and sintering, wire can be fashioned into high-capacity power cables and HTS coils for motors and generators. With wire being the foundation of all electrical gear, such power densities can dramatically increase the capacity and reliability of power delivery networks, ease the burden of installing new cables and shrink the size, weight, manufacturing cost and operating expense of generators and motors. (Note: Intermagnetics, too, is developing its own HTS wire.) ...