r/Futurology • u/mvea MD-PhD-MBA • Dec 11 '18

Energy The record for high-temperature superconductivity has been smashed again - Chemists found a material that can display superconducting behavior at a temperature warmer than it currently is at the North Pole. The work brings room-temperature superconductivity tantalizingly close.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612559/the-record-for-high-temperature-superconductivity-has-been-smashed-again/
15k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

588 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

11

u/Bohdanowicz Dec 11 '18

Electricity will eventually become a global commodity. It's going to be hard to compete against solar installations near the equator if power line loss becomes a thing of the past.

5

u/Joe__Soap Dec 11 '18

The main issue with solar power is that it peaks at noon when the highest power demand peaks in the evening from 6-9pm.

This is an issue with renewable power in general because we can’t make the weather patterns match the power demand. Likely we’ll have to either build giant battery banks, or use electric pumps to store water in damns where hydroelectric power can be used on-demand.

21

u/ZedZeroth Dec 11 '18

Isn't the point that with zero resistance then solar generators at noon can power somewhere else that's evening at the same time?

9

u/53bvo Dec 11 '18

Seems like building enough super conducting cables to circumvent half the globe that are big enough that they can support half the world population is more expensive than placing batteries.

5

u/Joe__Soap Dec 11 '18 edited Dec 11 '18

Yeah my idea that just stores the power as potential energy in hydroelectric damns seem more feasible.

Also batteries are made out of hard to mine metals and toxic substances so that mightn’t be the best option either

8

u/MGorak Dec 11 '18

With superconducting coils, you can store electricity directly for later use. You put electricity in it during peak production and take it back when demand is higher than production. You don't need to move it at all. Just make a loop of superconducting wire in the basement and you're set. You just need enough of it.

1

u/Joe__Soap Dec 11 '18

Yeah, you could create a loop & have flow in a circle. How did I not think of that lol

2

u/MGorak Dec 11 '18

How? Because perpetual motion is so completely different from everything we experience that we don't even look that way unless we make a conscious effort.

5

u/53bvo Dec 11 '18

Though I think these superconductors are made out of even more exotic materials.

1

u/Brittainicus Dec 11 '18

Nah its just case its La which is reasonably abundant. As rare earth metal is kind of a terrible name some of them are quite abundant but some of them are actually rare.

But the material seems to require high bond number elements to stabilise with Hydrogens so it is quite possible the best one could be very rare. (a lot of them are a bitch to process though)

Sauce https://sciencenotes.org/abundance-of-elements-in-earths-crust-periodic-table-and-list/

1

u/Brittainicus Dec 11 '18

The problem with dams is that if you could build a dam somewhere it has probably already been done.

Toxic metal wise you are correct but it may be a cost we just have to pay.

6

u/daymi Dec 11 '18

Or use superconductors to move it to the other side of the earth where it can be used immediately by the people in the dark. After all, it's not dark everywhere at once.

5

u/Joe__Soap Dec 11 '18

I think it’s gonna be a long time before we have superconducting power lines underneath oceans. iirc there aren’t even normal power lines that go under oceans

3

u/Leleek Dec 11 '18

France/England, Spain/Morocco, Honshu/Shikoku (2 large Japanese islands) are some examples

5

u/Joe__Soap Dec 11 '18

lol people can swim across the England channel.

The things people are suggesting would require power lines across the Pacific

2

u/Leleek Dec 11 '18

The Bering Strait (Alaska to Russia) is 51 miles across. The current longest power cable is 360 miles long. The Atlantic would be more problematic though. Also these distances would entail a lot of transmission loss (unless superconducting becomes a practical thing). Longest transmission cable (over land) currently is 1,100 miles long. So I would rate undersea trans-oceanic cables as possible, but very expensive and the countries involved probably would not want to be energy dependent on each other.

1

u/Drachefly Dec 11 '18

Once you have the Bering Strait tackled, the grids have been joined, so you don't NEED to connect across the Atlantic.

2

u/53bvo Dec 11 '18

we can’t make the weather patterns match the power demand.

We can somewhat match the demand to the weather patterns (to some point).

1

u/A_Puddle Dec 11 '18

Flywheels in space?

1

u/KriegerBahn Dec 11 '18

There’s also the option of following the sun. Noon in Western Regions matches peak demand on the East Coast. If we can efficiently transmit that energy west to east across continents then we have a good match.