Facultat de Física

Departament de Física de la Matèria Condensada

High Temperature Superconductors: A reality for the Energy Transition

Teresa Puig

ICMAB-CSIC, Bellaterra, Spain

High-temperature superconductors (HTS) emerged 38 years ago as materials that would change our society with their ability to carry electrical current without losses at liquid nitrogen temperatures and, consequently, enable a different electrical distribution system. However, HTS materials were ceramic, anisotropic and brittle, and their physics was unknown, freezing the initial expectation of getting wires in a short time. The superconducting materials and physics community has worked very hard since then and today we understand the vortex physics of HTS, we are able to manufacture km-long HTS wires, called ‘coated conductors’, and there are more than half a dozen companies around the world manufacturing them. They have become materials that can help overcome the needs of the energy society thanks to an impressive interdisciplinary effort and long-standing cooperation between research laboratories, device engineers and industry. Providentially, we are now at one of the most exciting times for these materials, as they have spread to several emerging applications and the race for high-volume production has begun. In this presentation, I will introduce the physical phenomena of superconductivity, high-temperature superconducting materials and outline the current status of coated conductors. I will discuss new lines of research on electronic control of HTS vortex physics and new directions towards high-throughput fabrication by chemical methods, to make coated conductors better and more affordable materials. I will conclude with the status of HTS applications in energy, such as cables, generators and the emerging and exciting field of magnetic fusion, but also their implication for the future of High Energy Physics.