(cick for explanation)
American Superconductor Corporation has received a $1.3 million contract extension for its second generation (2G) high temperature superconductor (HTS) wire from the US Office of Naval Research (ONR), with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). This is the 6th contract or contract extension received by American Superconductor for 2G HTS wire development over just the last 10 months; the total dollar amount is approximately $8.1 million within that timeframe.
Superconductivity normally works at temperatures close to absolute zero (-459F/ -273C); "high temperature superconductor" wire has the ability to work in conditions you still wouldn't exactly consider comfortable. Targeted defense applications for 2G HTS wire include ship propulsion electric motors and generators; that area is particularly interesting, and ties into another research effort DID has noticed...
Military.com reports that the USA is also undertaking efforts to develop cryogenically cooled electronics and power generation systems that could help it deal with surging electricity requirements for its all-electric warships, while dropping the size of a typical naval engine (currently, about the size of a semi's trailer) by half and cutting weight (up to 220 tons) by a third.
The University at Albany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering is creating semiconductors for low-temperature functions, and MTECH Laboratories is working on turning them into power inverter modules. Superconducting wires that carry electricity with no resistance are the third requirement - which where 2G HTS comes in. Since all-electric warships are a global trend in advanced militaries, successes in this research area could have fairly profound implications.
Other areas of research using 2G HTS include degaussing cable systems, and non-lethal weapons; AMSC is actively involved in developing components or systems for each of these applications.
Op/Ed & Thoughts
Success in this area is also likely to lead to civilian power plants that benefit from their efficiencies; a number of generation plants already use modified jet or ship engine turbines. Reducing their size significantly and improving the efficiency and total power output could make high-efficiency local generation attractive in a number of new contexts. For instance, if it really is possible to improve efficiencies while driving the size down by half, and fuel costs remain high due to demand from India, China, et. al., large building complexes et. al. may begin to find it useful and economical to have such generators installed and operational full-time.
With the ability to sell power back to the grid on a distributed basis, the result would be a fairly painless increase in energy effiency and capacity. Not to mention greater resilience for our infrastructure in the face of natural disasters, terrorist strikes, et. al.
Superconductive wire that could actually work at normal daily temperatures would be an even bigger breakthrough; as just one example, it would allow the creation of power distribution lines that radically reduced transmission loss (most electrical power is lost in transit), saving immense amounts of energy and allowing new energy centers (say, large solar farms in New Mexico) to become profitable exporters. That goal is a long, long way off, and it is not the goal of DARPA's efforts as they do not require such performance.
Nevertheless, DARPA's efforts are a step in that direction.
In addition, the need for robust in military applications that can survive damage to cooling systems or outright breaches will continue to push military research toward superconductivity at more "normal" temperatures - creating a constant, high-priority research pressure toward that far-off goal.
In a world with such an imbalance between long-term energy needs and large-scale options, these preliminary efforts to improve ships' propulsions are both hopeful and potentially earthshaking. And if failure should be the end, as often happens in science... there will be other avenues, and other inventions, to pursue.
But I thought you might be interested in this one.
Talk about your perfect target for an EMP weapon.
I can see serious issues with an all electric ship, primarily backup systems and redundancy, but this still sounds cool.
Electric ships have an old tradition in the U.S. Navy (and here).
AFAIK now the trend, what is "fashion", is to set diesel powered generators isolated from the hull, to avoid its noise to be transmited into the water (see U.S.S. Lipscomb), and put the electric motors in pods astern, as it were a modern cruise ship. These motors, hanging in pods, which provide better manoeuvrability, should be small and efficent (to fit inside them and overcome one of the electric propulsion drawbacks), hence the necessity of improvement in superconductors.
By the way, superconductor technology is deeply involved in the development of magnetic confinement thermonuclear reactors (fusion energy), so maybe the U.S. Navy is paving the way for something even greater.
Why are my comments disappearing? What idol have I defiled?
#1: Well, I suppose the designers have given some thought to EMP issue. In fact, inside a well-grounded metal hull is one of the safest places against EMPs.
The French between WWI abd WWII ran a commercial sea-going ship using wind turbines. The turbines looked like smoke stacks on the ship.
The wind turbines being proposed in Maryland are raising a rukus because of the treeline clearing that would be required to place the "wind-mill" designs being proposed.
Does anyone out there have any knowledge of the french ship? Those stack like turbines might be usable withing the elevated foot print of water distribution towers. As there are are over 20,000 water towers in MD this might be a real doable.
Does anyone out there have visablility on information specific to the vertical turbines used on this french ship??
Many thanks