Reliable commercial HTS wire for power applications

Abstract

The production of HTS wire for power applications is increasingly maturing into industrial dimensions. The most widely considered manufacturing method for this conductor is the BSCCO-2223-OPIT route, used internationally by many organizations, including American Superconductor. Significant advances in HTS wire technology have been made in the past years, with currently a guaranteed minimum critical current performance of 115 A at 77 K over commercial long length. For the HTS wire itself this is equivalent to an engineering current density of 13.5 kA/cm 2. During the past 18 months, American Superconductor increased its HTS wire manufacturing capacity in its Westborough operations from 250 to 500 km/year to meet the increased demand for development and demonstration purposes. While this level of quality and quantity is sufficient to demonstrate technical feasibility and reliability of prototype power applications, it cannot satisfy fully commercial requirements for economic viability. To address broader markets with a commercially viable product, a price level of $50/(kA m) is possible with BSCCO-2223-OPIT when manufactured in much larger quantities. Therefore, American Superconductor is currently siting a new facility dedicated solely to the manufacturing of BSCCO-OPIT-2223 wire in quantities of 10,000 km/year. Key initial applications for this wire are power transmission cables, industrial motors and electrical generators. This paper will report on the performance and reliability testing of BSCCO-2223 wires. We will discuss the electrical, bending, tensile, and fatigue testing results of wires manufactured for applications such as American Superconductor's 5000 hp ultra-compact motor. Due to their compactness, these motors will be less expensive to manufacture compared with conventional motors and will be more energy efficient. We will also review the stringent electrical, mechanical, and environmental testing developed jointly by American Superconductor and Pirelli Cables and Systems for simulating the behavior of HTS wires under the actual operating conditions for an underground power cable. Also, we will give an update of the status of our new manufacturing plant which is planned to be operational in 2002.