If they can get it to the temp of liquid nitrogen, it supports a resonable current density and it is ductile, it will be worth a fortune.
Currently machines that require superconductors (MRI units) require liquid helium, an expensive and recently scarce comodity.
Down in MotownA gritty section of Detroit surrounds one of the city's oldest electric power stations. But the technology that Detroit Edison is installing at the Frisbie substation is pure 21st century -- underground superconducting cables that can transmit immense currents of electricity with near perfect efficiency.
by Peter Fairley
July/August 2001
While increasing energy demands are putting more and more stress on the nation's long-distance power transmission network, cities are suffering their own version of electric gridlock; in many locations, underground transmission lines are fast reaching capacity and are literally burning up. Superconducting cables, like the ones being installed in Detroit, could safely triple the power moving through existing conduits, avoiding the need to dig up the streets -- even making room for fiber-optic communications lines.
The Frisbie demonstration marks a milestone in electricity know-how -- one of the first commercial applications of high-temperature superconductors. These ceramics, first fashioned by IBM researchers in 1986, now transmit alternating currents with nearly zero resistance at temperatures as high as -139 °C (the materials can be cheaply cooled to that temperature using liquid nitrogen). In contrast, conventional copper cables dissipate as much as 10 percent of the power they carry because of resistance; that lost power escapes as heat, which limits just how much juice can flow before the cable melts.