A team of European researchers reported recently that they have been successful in developing a more cost-effective and efficient superconducting tape that if developed further can be used in enhancing the potential of wind turbines by hundred percent. Named as Eurtapes, it is a project on superconductivity that was carried out by a team of European researchers. The project aimed to explore the ability of a specific material to channelize power with zero resistance and loose very less power. They were successful in achieving this combination of properties and finally produced a tape with an extended length of 600 meters.
Xavier Obradors, a project coordinator from the institute of Materials Science of Barcelona, further adds, “This material, a copper oxide, is like a thread that conducts 100 times more electricity than copper. With this thread you can for example make cables to transport much more electricity or generate much more intense magnetic fields than today, his new material could be used to make more potent and lighter wind turbines”. He predicts that someday it will be possible for them to create wind turbines that have double potency than the ones that we have today.
Eurotape is a four year long project that included participation from leader from the field of superconductivity from nine different countries including France, Spain, Slovakia, Romania, Italy, Germany, Britain, Belgium, and Austria. The European Union has been taking care of its budget which amount to somewhere close to 20 million Euros. Whenever current passes through a conductor like silver or copper, a small part of this change is lost in form of heat, this loss enhances as the distance travelled by charge increases. Superconductivity was first discovered in mercury almost a century back. The electrical resistance in this effect drops to zero all of a sudden whenever the metal is cooled to absolute zero. This generates a very strong magnetic field, an effect usually found in applications such as MRI body scanners.
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