[Seernb]

Anyone know anything on high temperature superconductors ?

High temperature superconductors (HTS) wires can transmitt power with no transmission losses. They can store energy in their magnectic fields too. By storing energy the intermittancy of wind power can be mitigated, and more generally, variations in electicity demand can be met without the need to use quick firing gas stations.
So far the high cost of these wires have prevented them from being used commercially, but with higher energy (and hence electricity) prices will they be used?

[EnviroEngr]

There are some physicists, engineers and technicians at FermiLab looking into these for the Tevatron reworks. Important issue for them....

All Fermilab Search

[MarkR]

HTS wires are interesting. They won't completely get rid of energy loss (you need to pump chilled liquid nitrogen around them to keep them superconducting) but they can reduce it.

Superconduting magnetic energy storage (SMES) is used mainly for cleaning up power grids where they are polluted by industrial loads. Typical present-day systems are designed for a 1 second storage capacity, although as HTS becomes cheaper, systems with storage capacity as long as 1 minute may be practical.

If you haven't already checked out http://www.amsuper.com it might give you some more info - American Superconductor are one of the largest suppliers of HTS wire, and they're trying hard to sell it.

[Graeme]

Superconducting Surprise: Better Understanding Could Bring 'Endless Applications'

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')IT physicists have taken a step toward understanding the puzzling nature of high-temperature superconductors, materials that conduct electricity with no resistance at temperatures well above absolute zero.

When a material is in a superconducting state, all electrons are at the same energy level. The range of surrounding, unavailable electron energy levels is called the superconducting gap. It is a critical component of superconduction, because it prevents electrons from scattering, thus eliminating resistance and allowing the unimpeded flow of current.

Just above the transition temperature when a material starts to superconduct, it exists in a state called the pseudogap. This state of matter is not at all well understood, said Hudson.

The researchers decided to investigate the nature of the pseudogap state by studying the properties of electron states that were believed to be defined by the characteristics of superconductors: the states surrounding impurities in the material.

It had already been shown that natural impurities in a superconducting material, such as a missing or replaced atom, allow electrons to reach energy levels that are normally within the superconducting gap, so they can scatter. This can be observed using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM).

The new MIT study shows that scattering by impurities occurs when a material is in the pseudogap state as well as the superconducting state. That finding challenges the theory that the pseudogap is only a precursor state to the superconductive state, and offers evidence that the two states may coexist.

[Subjectivist]

New much higher temperature superconductor found. Much more at link

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'F')or nearly 30 years, the search for a room-temperature superconductor has focused on exotic materials known as cuprates, which can carry currents without losing energy as heat at temperatures up to 164 Kelvin, or –109 ˚C. But scientists say that they have trumped that record using the common molecule hydrogen sulphide. When they subjected a tiny sample of that material to pressures close to those inside Earth’s core, the researchers say that it was superconductive at 190 K (–83 ˚C).

[dissident]

The huge pressure required makes this discovery a nice academic exercise.