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Energy Choices for the 21st Century
An Undergraduate
Energy Science Seminar Course for Non-Science Majors
Instructors: John D. Fox and Theodore H. Geballe
Stanford University
Stanford, CA
Supplemental Web Site
Material by
Paul M. Grant
Visiting Scholar, Applied Physics
Home Page: http://www.w2agz.com
This Page:
http://www.w2agz.com/ap79q.htm
To see how much electricity Californians are using right now, click
here
Now have a look at Stanford's Jasper Ridge Sun Field
Station
For the rest of the country, go to
Current Energy
Course Description
APPPHYS 79Q.
Energy Choices for the 21st CenturyStanford Introductory
Seminar. Preference to sophomores. Choices for meeting the future
energy needs of the U.S. and the world. Basic physics of energy
sources, technologies that might be employed, and related public
policy issues. Trade-offs and societal impacts of different energy
sources. Policy options for making rational choices for a
sustainable world energy economy.
"PMG Handouts"
"EE 101"
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FACTS
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Hydrogen
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Geothermal
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Nukes
(Fission)
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The Need for Nuclear Power
[Published in 2000 in the
prestigious policy journal, Foreign Affairs, Richard Rhodes
(author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb and Dark Sun) and
Denis Beller, a nuclear engineer at Los Alamos National
Laboratory0, The Need for Nuclear Power is a thoughtful
argument that nuclear power must be a major component of
world electricity supply in the 21st century.] |
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Megawatts and Megatons
[A Nature book review of
Richard Garwin's and Georges Charpak's treatise on the
trade-offs between nuclear power and nuclear weapons.
Garwin is one of the original designers of the hydrogen bomb
and Charpak, a Nobel Laureate, is a strong advocate for
nuclear power and a vigorous opponent of weapons
development.] |
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An Ancient Nuclear Reactor
[Two billion years ago, in
the region of West Africa today known as Oklo in Gabon,
water seeped into an uranium ore deposit unusually in the
radioactive isotope U-235 and slowed its naturally fast
neutron decay sufficiently to produce a fission reaction and
thus "nuclear power" and plutonium! So plutonium is,
after all, a "natural" element.] |
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David Bodansky's Talk at APS at APS #100
[Talk at the 100th
Anniversary Meeting of the American Physical Society in 1999
by the author of the most widely used textbook on nuclear
power engineering. Good source on numbers in the
nuclear power industry and issues with recycling and
disposal.] |
|
David Bodansky's Paper from APS #100
[Very thoughtful and based
on the above talk. Although Bodansky is a prominent advocate
of nuclear power and its almost limitless resources, he
speculates whether "really cheap energy" would spark an even
larger exponential growth in population.] |
Back to "PMG Handouts"
Plug-in
Hybrids
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History
of Electricity in the United States
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"SuperVisions"
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Fusion
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Biofuels
& Biomass
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Solar
Roofs
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"Smart
Houses"
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XXXX
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XXXX
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SuperWiki
Everything you wanted to know (or
maybe not!) about Superconductivity
You can find on the links below
20th Anniversary of the
Discovery of High-TC
The Discovery
Mueller-Bednorz Science Magazine Story
Mueller Nobel Lecture
Superconductivity & Power
Applications Bibliography
Be sure to read the fine
print colored brown
Many of the files are huge (~40 MB)...play some
SuperTunes while downloading
Recent Talks
|
"SuperCities
and SuperGrids: Teratechnologies for an Exajoule World,"
P. M. Grant, Ohlone Community College Brown Bag Science
Seminar, 7 April 2006 (Invited).
[A popular talk
on the nuclear, hydrogen and superconductivity vision, the
basis for an article in the July, 2006 issue of Scientific
American. This page contains links to a wide variety
of energy-related publications and web sites for students
majoring in energy and environmental sciences.] |
| "Quo
Vadis, High-Tc?",
P. M. Grant, 2006 DOE Wire Development Workshop, St.
Petersburg, FL, 31 January 2006 (Invited).
[An
iconoclastic examination of the prospect for mass
markets for HTSC applications in the utility sector, that
looks at current domestic and foreign programs and the
decision by Pirelli to park its cable development program.
It concludes that no markets with an EBIT return of greater
than $20 M per year will emerge in the near future. (The
Venn Diagram in this talk takes 30 seconds to display in pdf)] |
| "System,
Construction and Integration Issues for Long Distance, High
Capacity, Ceramic HTSC dc Cables,"
P. M. Grant, 6th Pacific Rim on Ceramic
and Glass Technology - PACRIM6,Ritz-Carlton Kapalua, Maui
HI, 11-16 September 2005 (Invited).
[Restructuring
the Garwin-Matisoo work in the context of HTSC with an eye
to infrastructure development.]
|
| "Garwin-Matisoo
Revisited 40 Years Later!,"
P. M. Grant, Stanford-Wisconsin-Air Force
MURI Workdshop on Coated Conductors, Palo Alto, CA, 24-26
April 2006 (Invited).
[A
look at the practically of electricity trading constrained
by the Bean Model of hysteretic losses over a high capacity,
continental scale SCDC cable.] |
| "Cryodelivery
Systems for the Co-Transmission of Chemical and Electrical
Power,"
P. M. Grant, Joint Meeting of the
Cyrogenic Engineering Conference (CEC) and the International
Cryogenic Materials Conference (ICMC), Keystone, CO, 29
August - 2 September 2005 (Invited).
[This
talk and subsequent paper focuses on the role of hydrogen as
cryogen, chemical fuel and storage of electricity as an
adjunct to superconductivity.]
|
| "View
from Electric Power Industry as a Whole,"
P. M. Grant,AFOSR-MURI
Coated Conductor Workshop, Harpers Ferry,
WV, 30 July 2004 (Invited).
[The
situation in the aftermath of the August 2003 east coast
blackout. Concludes that strong Federal action is
needed to subsidize and prod the transmission RTOs into
adapting already mature and reliable technologies.]
|
Back to Bibliography
Recent Papers - Peer
Reviewed
|
"The
SuperCable: Dual Delivery of Hydrogen and Electric Power,"
Paul M. Grant, Power Systems Conference and Exposition,2004,IEEE
PES,PSCE04 Panel Session on Future Power
Delivery Options for Long-Term Energy Sustainability, 10-13
October 2004, New York, Pages 1745 - 1749, Vol. 3, Digital
Object Identifier 10.1099/PSCE.2004.1397675
(http://ieeexplore.ieee.org).
[Original SuperCable paper
concentrating on physical dimensions and losses.] |
| "The
SuperCable: Dual Delivery of Chemical and Electrical Power,"
Paul M. Grant, IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond. 15, 1810 (2005).
[The general design of a
dual-purpose cable to deliver electricity via
superconductivity and chemical potential power via cryogenic
hydrogen or natural gas is presented. A universal
dimensionless scaling parameter for sizing each type of
power is defined.] |
| "Cryo-Delivery
Systems for the Co-Transmission of Chemical and Electrical
Power," Paul M. Grant, Adv. Cryo. Eng. (appearing).
[Emphasis on the delivery of cryofuel in the form of liquid
hydrogen or supercritical hydrogen gas at 77 K or as LNG
along with wellhead generated electricity.] |
Back to Bibliography
Power Apps of
Superconductivity
|
"Superconductivity
and Electric Power: Promises, Promises...Past, Present and
Future," P. M. Grant, IEEE Trans. Appl. Super. 7, 112
(1997). [Based
on a Plenary Lecture at the 1996 Applied Superconductivity
Conference held in Pittsburg. An in your face review of
where power applications have been, were at in 1997, and
where they might be going. Contains a description of
the "electricity pipe" concept of Grant, Schoenung and
Hassenzahl] |
| "Cost
Projections for High Temperature Superconductors," P. M.
Grant and T. P. Sheahen,
http://arxiv.org/ftp/cond-mat/papers/0202/0202386.pdf,
Applied Superconductivity Conference, Palm Springs, CA,
1998.
[An
engineering-economy based approach to estimating eventual
cost/performance of both Generation 1 (OPIT/BSCCO/Ag) and
Generation 2 coated conductor (textured YBCO) HTSC tape.
Unlike wires made from non-superconducting metals, e.g.,
copper, the cost/performance in $/kAŚm of HTSC tapes is
highly application specific and cannot be reduced to a
single number.] |
| "Potential
Electric Power Applications for Magnesium Diboride,"
P. M. Grant, Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 689, 3 (2002).
[A
quite controversial paper showing magnesium diboride
promises to be cost competitive for power transformer
application.] |
| "Superconductivity
for Electric Systems 2005 Annual Peer Review,"
August 2-4, 2005,
L'enfant Plaza Hotel, Washington, D.C.
[Link to the latest DOE
Office of Electricity superconductivity program content,
containing downloadable pdfs of several talks. A CD of
all presentations can be obtained by contacting Joe Badin at
Energetics, jbadin@energetics.com] |
| "Superconductivity
Technology Center at LANL,"
[Home page at Los
Alamos, with detail on their coated conducting program and
links to other sites.] |
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"High-Temperature
Superconductivity (HTS) R&D at ORNL,"
[Oak Ridge
superconductivity home page containing details of its
program in wire development and power applications.] |
| "DOE
Office of Electricity Delivery & Energy Reliability -
Superconductivity Program,"
[Home page of the DOE
program in power applications of superconductivity.
For further information, contact
Jim Daley.] |
Back to Bibliography
Superconductor Cable
Anthology
|
"Prospect
of Employing Conductors at Low Temperature in Power Cables
and in Power Transformers,"
K. J. R. Wilkinson, Proc. IEE (London) 113, 1509 (1966).
[First
serious consideration of cryoresistive power cables,
including Nb at 4 K operating in the Meissner state!] |
| "Superconducting
Lines for the Transmission of Large Amounts of Electric
Power over Great Distances," R. L. Garwin and J. Matisoo,
Proc. IEEE 55, 538 (1967).
[A Classic! All subsequent considerations of
superconducting dc cables derives from Garwin-Matisoo. This
paper is necessary reading for anyone interested in power
applications of superconductivity.] |
| "Multiple
Use of Cryogenic Fluid Transmission Lines,"
J. R. Bartlit, F. J. Edeskuty and E. F. Hammel,
Proc. ICEC4, Eindhoven, 24/26 May 1972. [This prescient study from LANL explores the dual delivery of
methane and/or hydrogen as energy agents in a "SuperCable"
concept. However, neither serves as a cryogen...liquid
hydrogen was necessary...the discovery of high temperature
superconductivity was still 13 years in the future!]
|
| "dc
Superconducting Power Transmission Line Project at LASL,"
ed. F. J. Edeskuty, US DOE Division of Electric Energy
Systems, 1 November 1972 - 30 September 1979, Progess Report
24 (Final). [Massive and inclusive study of a large capacity, 5 GW SCDC
cable employing Nb3Sn, sponsored by DOE and the
Philadelphia Electric Company (PECO) representing the
interests of several eastern utilities (this was "before
EPRI"). The project was discontinued after building
and testing a few meters of conductor due to lack of funding
and lack of utility interest (Thanks to Dean Peterson of
LANL for making this report public).] |
| "Refrigeration
and Heat Transfer in Superconducting Power Lines,"
D. E. Daney and R. H. Hammond, NIST Interim Report
275.05-75-2, April 1975.
[An interesting study of the use of slush hydrogen as
cryogen for an Nb3Ge dc cable. No intention
to use the hydrogen as an energy source in and of itself is
discussed.] |
| "Performance
Summary of the Brookhaven Superconducting Power Transmission
System," E. B. Forsyth and R. A. Thomas, Cryogenics 26,
599 (1986). [A
1000 MVA, three phase ac cable built using NbTi at 4 K and
tested at Brookhaven National Laboratory in the years just
preceding the discovery of high temperature
superconductivity. The project was technically
successful, but major utilities did not think the technology
economically feasible (I know this information directly from
several "personal communications.").] |
| "Practical
Conclusions from Field Trials of a Superconducting Cable,"
P. A. Klaudy and J. Gerhold, IEEE Trans. Mag. MAG-19, 656
(1983). [The
first superconducting cable to be installed on a grid (near
Arnstein, Austria). It used Nb at 6.5 K as the
superconductor and had a capacity of 60 kV at 1000 A and
operated continuously from 1977-80. It may be that the
Nb was operated in the Meissner state...there is no mention
of ac losses. The emphasis was on the flexible design,
rather than the superconducting properties.] |
| "A
dc Transmission Cable Prototype Using High-Temperature
Superconductors," T. P. Beales, et al., Supercond. Sci.
Technol. 9, 43 (1995).
[The first attempt at an HTSC
cable, at least a short one. The design is an interesting
one, targeting a 400 km European "ring buss" with a 400 MW,
40 kV, 10 kA capacity with cold He gas at 4.2 K blown in one
end and warming to 40 K at the other, well within the
critical parameter limits of Bi-2223 throughout that range.] |
| "System
Study of Long Distance Low Voltage Transmission Using High
Temperature Superconducting Cable," S. M. Schoenung, W.
V. Hassenzahl and P. M. Grant, EPRI Report WO8065-12, March,
1997. [This
study was inspired by a talk I heard from ABB at the 1996
World Energy Conference in Yokohama, Japan, which compared
the cost effectiveness for well head generation at a vast
natural gas reserve such the Qatar region in the Persian
Gulf and transport over HVDC lines. We studied a third
alternative, that using a superconducting "e-pipe" to
transport power from Qatar to a future
Egyptian-Palestine-Israel-Syrian industrial complex, and
concluded this alternative was attractive for distances
greater than 500 miles.] |
| "Superconducting
Cable Construction and Testing," D. von Dollen and J.
Daley, Final Report 1000160, November 2000.
[This project was
better known as the "EPRI/Pirelli Cable," and resulted from
studies performed by EPRI and Pirelli in the early 1990s.
The intent was the design and construction of a 50-m long US
standard "pipe type" cable to retrofit 115 kV ac cables with
an increased 3-phase capacity to 400 MVA. The design
did not have a superconducting shield which simplified the
insulation package (so-called "room temperature
dielectric"), but exposed each phase to induced co-phase ac
losses in addition to those arising from "self-current"
flow. This design was the basis for the Detroit-Edison
demonstration, NKT's Copenhagen Airport, and China's Puji
substation. It was during final testing of this cable
that the "blister/balloon" problem manifested, arising from
leakage of liquid nitrogen into the BSCCO filaments through
pinholes in the Ag tape, leading to its literal "exploding"
when the cable was warmed up. AMSC solved this by
later solder-cladding the silver tapes with stainless steel.
Since this issue was considered proprietary at the time,
there is no discussion of it in this report. |
"ac
Loss in Superconducting Power Cables," M. Daeumling, et
al., Studies of High Temperature Superconductors (ed. A.
Narlikar, Nova Science Publishers), Vol. 33, p. 73 (2000).
[Probably
the best treatise on ac losses in print. Written by
the design team of the Copenhagen Airport Cable.] |
| "Copenhagen
Airport Demonstration," Dag Willen, NKT Cables Press
Release, 28 May 2001.
[An RTD design like
Detroit Edison. Worked well, but no follow-on project.
The NKT superconductivity unit was later sold to Nexans.] |
| "Field
Demonstration of a 24-kV Warm Dielectric Superconducting
Cable at Detroit Edison," S. Eckroad and N. Kelly, EPRI
FY2003 Annual Progress Report 1002040,
Technical Update, March 2004.
[The Detroit-Edison
demonstration remains today the most realistic deployment of
a superconducting cable, three cables, 120-m each, threaded
though 50-year old clay ducts containing five 90-degree
bends approximately 2-m radius of curvature.
Unfortunately, the cryostat welds contained a number of
martensitic phases resulting in vacuum leaks which prevented
the cable from being fully energized at specification
voltage. However, the critical current and ac loss
properties of the superconducting tape were measured and
found to have undergone little significant degradeation
during the cablve installation. A system study
associated with the project on the impact of coaxial
(shielded) superconducting cables resulted in demonstrating
the network advantages a very low inductive reactance cable
might present in utility operation. |
| "China's
30m, 35kv/2kA ac HTS Power Cable Project," Ying Xin, et
al., EUCAS 2003.
[This project was
essentially "Detroit-Edison without cryostat leaks" and
performed to its specifications perfectly.
Unfortunately, there are now plans currently in place to
follow-on.]] |
| "Feasibility
of Electric Power Transmission by DC Superconducting Cables,"
P. Chowdhuri, C. Pallem, J. A. Demko and M. J. Gouge
IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond 15, 3917 (2005).
[Study of GW and
500 MW SCDC cables. Emphasis is on cryogenics,
inverter/converter issues and harmonic control] |
| "Southwire
HTS Cable Program Overview," D. Lindsay, 2005 US DOE
Peer Review, 2 August 2005
[Altogether, this is
one of earliest of US HTSC cable programs. The 30-m
installation at Southwire's Carrollton, GA plant has been in
operation almost continuously for six years. The follow-on
project will be installed in the Columbus, OH Bixby
substation. This is an adaptation of a conventional
triaxial design wherein all three phases are enclosed.
The HTSC cable will be 200-m, 13.2 kV, 1000 A/phase 69 MVA
circuit.] |
| "Albany
Cable Project Progress Update," C. Weber, R. Lee and K.
Hayashi, 2005 US DOE Peer Review, 2 August 2005.
[Cable demonstration
at a Niagara Mohawk substation using Sumitomo's "3-in-1"
cable design. They plan to have a 15-m segment using Gen 2
YBCO tape.] |
| "LIPA
Project Overview," 2005 US DOE Peer Review," 2 August
2005.
[Long Island Power
Authority 610-m 136 kV, 2400 A cable project with Nexans and
American Superconductor.] |
| "HTS
Transmission Network Will Be the Key of 21st Century's Power
Grid," R. Hata, Kunming Symposium, 24 June 2004.[A
survey of all tape and cable programs in Japan by Ryosuke
Hata of Sumitomo Electric Industries.] |
| "Getting
the Metrics Right," D. Lindsay, 2006 DOE Wire
Development Workshop, 30 January 2006, St. Petersburg, FL.
[A thoughtful
appraisal the present approach to measuring and reporting
"metric" presumed critical to commercial acceptance.
Lindsay suggests adopting a new metric with units "$/system-MVA/meter/30yr
life." |
| "R&D
of 22.9 kV/50 MVA HTS Transmission Power Cable in Korea,"
J. Cho, Kunming Symposium, 24 June 2004.
[Review of the entire
Korean program by all participating agencies and not limited
to cables.] |
Back to Bibliography
Past SC Application
Surveys/Workshops
| "Research
Opportunities in Superconductivity," M. Tinkham, M. R.
Beasley, D. C. Larbalestier, A. F. Clark and D. K. Finnemore,
Report on the Workshop on Problems in Superconductivity,
22-23 August 1983, Copper Mountain, CO (Sponsored by NSF,
ONR and NBS), November, 1983.
[This
workshop was held against the background of a substantial
decline in funding for superconductivity by Federal agencies
and the impending decision taken by IBM during the writing
of this report to scale back its Josephson computer project.
On page 12 one can find the phrase penned by Mac Beasley,
"At the extreme forefront of research in superconductivity
is the empirical search for new superconductors...," which
was quoted by Bednorz and Mueller as the first line of their
discovery paper. This report has only this one
citation in the technical literature, but what a citation!
A lesson to be learned...do not try to justify basic
research on the expectation of applications. By the
way, this report focuses overwhelmingly on electronics...the
only mention of a power application is SMES.] |
| "Superconductors:
The Long Road Ahead," S. Foner and T. P. Orlando, MIT
Technology Review, February/March 1988, p. 36.
[Published the year following
the YBCO discovery, this piece expresses great caution over
the high expectations prevalent during this period.
The article is a very good survey of past superconductivity
application attempts, their successes and failures, and the
impact HTSC might or might not have in the future.] |
| "Report
on Discussions with Utility Engineers about Superconducting
Generators," D. Forbes and R. Blaugher, NREL/TP-413-20668,
March 1996. [Bottom
Line: The major advantage perceived for HTSC generators was
their projected low life-cycle costs. Most respondents
did not feel a significant US market would develop earlier
than 15 - 20 years from the date of the report. As far
as I know, with the possible exception of a very small LTSC
unit in Japan, no superconducting generators are deployed or
planned for deployment anywhere in the world at present.] |
| "The
US Market for High-Temperature Superconducting Wire in
Transmission Cable Applications," D. Forbes, NREL/TP-450-20667,
April 1996.
[This report summarizes a
series of interviews with utility engineers on the market
potential for HTSC cables, wires and tapes. A number
of interesting anecdotes are related which give insight into
various aspects of utility culture. The report
concludes that HTSC wire sales for cables would reach $66 M
in 2006. The future is hard to predict.] |
| "Power
Applications of Superconductivity in Japan and Germany,"
D. Larbalestier, et al., WTEC Panel Final Report ISBN
1-883712-46-7, September 1997.
[The infamous male bonding
trip featuring lost colleagues and broken laptops.
This report had major impact on increasing the DOE
superconductivity appropriation thereafter by 60%.] |
| "HTS
Cable -- Status, Challenge and Opportunity," A. M.
Wolsky, International Energy Agency Report, 2 December 2004.
[Alan Wolsky's "Magnum
Opus," 407 pages of everything you need or would ever want
to know about superconducting cables. Lots of good
tables on conventional HVDC transmission lines and cables
installed worldwide.] |
Back to Bibliography
Classic Superconductivity
Papers
| "Superconductivity:
The Day Before Yesterday - Yesterday - Today - Tomorrow,"
V. L. Ginzburg, Physics - Uspekhi 43, 573 (2000).
[A marvelous review of
the ghosts of superconductivity, past, present and future,
written in the style only Vitaly Ginzburg can create.
The bibliography spans the entire scientific history of
superconductivity.] |
| H. Kamerlingh
Onnes, Commun. Leiden 120b (1911). |
| "Ein
neuer Effekt bei Eintritt der Supraleitfaehigkeit (A New
Effect Concerning the Ability to Penetrate a
Superconductor)", W. Meissner and R. Ochsenfeld, Die
Naturwissenshaften 44, 787 (1933).
[(In German) Discovery
that when a superconductor is cooled in an external magnetic
field, that field is expelled from within the
superconductor. It is this effect that differentiates
a superconductor from a "perfect conductor."]
|
| Gorter-Casimir |
| "The
Electromagnetic Equations of the Supraconductor," F.
London and H. London, Proc Roy. Soc London A149, 71 (1935).
[An empirical
reformulation of Maxwell's equations to accommodate the
Meissner-Ochsenfeld field expulsion effect. Introduces
the key concept of a magnetic field penetration depth.] |
| Ginzburg-Landau |
| "An
Experimental and Theoretical Study of the Relation between
Magnetic Field and Current in a Superconductor," A.
B. Pippard, Proc. Roy. Soc. London A216, 547 (1953).
[In this paper, Brian
Pippard elucidates a fundamental key concept underlying all
BCS-like theories of superconductivity, whether stroong or
weak coupling.] |
| "Theory
of Superconductivity," J. Bardeen, L. N. Cooper and J.
R. Schrieffer, Phys. Rev. 108, 1175 (1957).
[The BCS Nobel Prize
paper. Finally, an explanation of superconductivity
some 46 years after its discovery. The BCS theory is
the crowning theoretical achievement of condensed matter
physics in the 20th Century.] |
| "Transition
Temperature of Strong-Coupled Superconductors," W.
L. McMillan, Phys.
Rev. 167, 331 (1968). [The "practical theory" of superconductivity which allowed
relating the electron-phonon coupling to tunneling
spectroscopy, the so-called alpha-2 F(omega).] |
| "A
Research Investigation of the Factors That Affect the
Superconducting Properties of Materials," GE Report
AD480235, 15 November 1965.
[The classic GE study
done under Air Force sponsorship which contains the first
detailed study of hysteretic losses in Type II
superconductors, otherwise known at the Bean Model.] |
| "Structure
and Properties of High-Field Superconductors," J.
D. Livingston, GE R&D Center Report (ca. 1969-70).
[Jim Livingston's
great little review of critical currents and pinning in Type
II superconductors, probably still the clearest exposition
of these issues and eerily relevant to anisotropic
superconductors yet to be discovered.] |
| "Critical
Fields, Pauli Paramagnetic Limiting, and Material Parameters
of Nb3Sn and V3Si," T. P. Orlando,
E. J. McNiff, Jr., S. Foner and M. R. Beasley, Phys. Rev. B
19, 4545 (1978).
[The appendices of this paper
contain a tremendously useful compilation of GLAG equations
in various clean and dirty limits.] |
| "Type
II Superconductivity: Quest for Understanding," T. G.
Berlincourt, IEEE Trans. Mag. MAG-23, 403 (1987).
[Probably the
definitive history of Type II (hard) superconductors.
Especially fascinating are the tribulations of Shubnikov and
the complete ignorance in the US of the achievements of
Abrikosov due to the curtain of the Cold War.] |
| "The
Critical Current of a Superconductor: An Historical Review,"
D. Dew-Hughes,Low Temperature Physics 27, 713 (2001).
[Probably the most up-to-date
summary of the most important parameter for applications,
next to Tc.] |
Back to Bibliography
Popular Articles on
SuperGrid
| "Will
MgB2 Work?," P. M. Grant, The Industrial
Physicist, October/November 2001, p. 22.
[The original exposition of
the nuclear/hydrogen/superconductivity symbiosis concept.] |
| "Energy
for the City of the Future," P. M. Grant, The Industrial
Physicist, October/November 2001, p. 22.
[This is "SuperCity," the
elaboration of the symbiosis of
nuclear/hydrogen/superconductivity technologies in the
context of a futuristic city. This article served as
the basis for several undergraduate honors projects.] |
| "National
Energy Planning for the Century: The Continental SuperGrid,"
C. Starr, Nuclear News, February 2002, p. 31.
[Chauncey Starr's extension
of the SuperCity concept to that encompassing a Continental
SuperGrid.] |
| "Nuclear
Energy's Contribution to the City of the Future,"
P.
M. Grant, Nuclear Future, Vol. 1, No. 1, p.17 (2005).
[Lead-off
article in the inaugural issue of the trade journal of the
British Nuclear Industry, just before the second article by
El-Baradei!] |
| "A
Power Grid for the Hydrogen Economy," P.
M. Grant, C. Starr and T. J. Overbye, Scientific American,
July 2006, p.76.
[Explores the vision of cryogenic, superconducting conduits
connected into a SuperGrid that would simultaneously deliver
electrical power and hydrogen fuel.] |
Back to Bibliography
High-Tc Discovery Period
Papers
| "Possibility
of Insulator to Superconductor Phase Transition," B. K.
Chakraverty, J. Physique-Lettres 40,L-99 (1978).
[Alex Mueller cites
this paper, and the following two, as his principal
inspiration to pursue mixed valent charge transition metal
complexes as possible hosts for high temperature
superconductivity.] |
| "Bipolarons
and Superconductivity,"
B. K.
Chakraverty, J. Physique 42, 1351 (1981).
[A elaboration of the
above paper.] |
| "Jahn-Teller
Effect in Itinerant Electron Systems: The Jahn-Teller
Polaron," K.-H. Hoeck, H. Nickish and H. Thomas,
Helvetica Physica Acta 56, 237 (1983).
[Mueller attributes
great importance to this paper as pointing to tetragonal
symmetry as hosting strong coupling of itinerant electrons
to a Jahn-Teller distortion such as found in mixed valent
compounds. Quite curiously, several years after the
publication of this paper, Hoeck seems to have "disappeared"
from the scientific scene.] |
| C. Michel and B.
Raveau, Chim. Min. 21, 407 (1984).
[This reference is
likely incorrect. It does refer to the LA-4-1-5-13
paper Bednorz found.] |
| "Possible
High TC Superconductivity in the Ba-La-Cu-O
System," J. G. Bednorz and K. A. Mueller, Z. Phys B -
Condensed Matter 64, 189 (1986).
[The discovery publication.
Ironically, Bednorz chose initially the only copper oxide
perovskite that's metallic at all temperatures and
superconducting at none, but which is extremely difficult to
make single phase. It was soon recognized that it was
a minor secondary phase responsible for the appearance of
superconductivity and they were on their way. There is
quite a story behind this paper.] |
| "Susceptibility
Measurements Support High TC Superconductivity in
the Ba-La-Cu-O System," J. G. Bednorz, M. Takashige and
K. A. Mueller, IBM Report RZ 1537, 19 November 1986.
[This link is actually
to a reprint received on 15 October 1986 by Rick Greene from
Alex Mueller (with autograph!). The Zuerich workers,
contrary to popular belief, in reality were the first to
confirm their own discovery.] |
| "Susceptibility
Measurements Support High TC Superconductivity in
the Ba-La-Cu-O System," J. G. Bednorz, M. Takashige and
K. A. Mueller, Europhys. Lett. 3, 379 (1987). [The
paper resulting from the above preprint. Read the note added
prior to publication.] |
| "Flux
Trapping and Superconductive Glass State in La2CuO4-y:Ba,"
K. A. Mueller, M. Takashige and J. G. Bednorz, Phys. Rev.
Letters 58, 1143 (1987).
[This is the third
remarkable paper out of IBM Zuerich which started the whole
subsequent study of flux dynamics in these anisotropic
superconductors.] |
| "Superconductivity
at 93 K in a New Mixed-Phase Y-Ba-Cu-O Compound at Ambient
Pressure," W. K. Wu, et al., Phys. Rev. Letters 58, 908
(1987).
[The Wu-Chu discovery
of YBCO...but not 1-2-3.] |
|
"Superconductivity
Above 90 K in the Compound YBa2Cu3Ox:
Structural, Transport, and Magnetic Properties,"
P. M. Grant, R. B. Beyers, E. M. Engler, G. Lim, S. S. P.
Parkin, M. L. Ramirez, V. Y. Lee, A. Nazzal, J. E. Vazquez
and R. J. Savoy, Phys. Rev. B35, 7242 (1987).
[First Report
of the "1-2-3" Crystal Structure and Material
Processing Conditions. More story to follow. Until
then, go here.] |
|
"Superconductivity Above Liquid Nitrogen Temperature:
Preparation and Properties of a Family of Perovskite-Based
Superconductors,"
E. M. Engler, V. Y. Lee, A. I. Nazzal, R. B. Beyers, G. Lim,
P. M. Grant, S. S. P. Parkin, M. L. Ramirez, J. E. Vazquez
and R. J. Savoy, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 109, 2848 (1987).
[The best paper hands down,
written by Ed Engler, that came out of the 1987 APS Meeting
of March, 1987, the "Woodstock of Physics." This is
the first report, which I was honored to give at
"Woodstock," on the structure, processing and properties, of
the rare earth substitutions for yttrium. There are
two retrospective "blunders" in this paper. One was
the attribution for the lack of superconductivity in
Pr-1-2-3 to the absence of the orthorhombic phase, which was
due to low oxygen concentration, later the subject of a more
comprehensive
paper. The other was reporting superconductivity
in the Ba-Ca-Sr fractional substitution which turned out to
be a blown labeling of samples! What the hell...we
were in battle!] |
|
"Evidence
for Superconductivity in La2CuO4,"
P. M. Grant, S. S. P. Parkin, V. Y. Lee, E. M. Engler, M.
L. Ramirez, J. E. Vazquez, G. Lim, R. D. Jacowitz and R. L.
Greene, Phys. Rev. Letters 58, 2482 (1987).
[This was a remarkable
discovery. In January, 1987, Rick Greene and I
observed zero thermopower at 41 K, a clear signature of
superconductivity, in an "undoped" sample of La2CuO4
given us by Georg Bednorz, one which was completely
insulating! Read the paper to find out what happened.
High-Temperature superconductivity could have been
discovered in 1954!] |
| "The
Discovery of a Class of High Temperature Superconductors,"
K. A. Mueller and J. G. Bednorz, Science 237, 1133 (1987).
[Story of the
discovery by the discoverers.] |
| "Critical-Current
Measurements in Epitaxial Films of YBa2Cu3O7-x
Compound," P. Chaudhari, et al., Phys. Rev. Letters 58,
2684 (1987). [The first epitaxial
films of Y-123 were made the evening of Monday,10 March
1987, the week before Woodstock, by Bob Laibowitz, using
structural and processing data supplied by IBM Almaden.] |
| "Orientation
Dependence of Grain-Boundary Critical Currents in
YBa2Cu3O7-δ
Bicrystals,"
Dimos, et. al, Phys. Rev.
Letters 61, 219 (1987).
[This is the famous "Dimo"
paper that provided the science to jump start the worldwide
developmen of coated conductor, or Gen 2 tape.] |
| "Resistive
Transition of High Temperature Superconductors," M.
Tinkham, Phys. Rev. Letters 61, 1658 (1988).
[This paper scared the hell
out of us when it appeared, because it implied the newly
discovered HTSC compounds may not be practical because of
thermal depinning of the Abrikosov vortex lattice. Its
appearance engendered a column in Science by Robert Poole, "Superconductivity:
Is the Party Over?" Tinkham concludes that a future
rooom temperature superconductor may indeed be in the
superconducting state, but not have zero resistance!
This is a great problem for future research.] |
| "Superconductivity:
Is the Party Over?," R. Poole, Science 244, 914 (1988).
[Column inspired by
Tinkham's article supported by some of David Bishop's flux
lattice melting work at Bell Labs. The piece quotes a
number of industrial leaders to the effect that "we're not
going to quit." No major corporation has a
superconductivity program today, and one of them now belongs
to a French company.] |
| "The
Development of Superconductivity Research in Oxides," K.
Alex Mueller (Monograph, date uncertain, ca. 1998-99).
[The description of
the science background and Mueller's thinking that led to
the eventual discovery of high temperature superconductivity
in the copper oxide perovskites.] |
| "Ich
war wie in Trance," NZZ am Sonntag, 21 Januar 2006, p.
67. [An
interview (in German) of George Bednorz in the Swiss
National Sunday newspaper on the occasion of the 20th
anniversary of his observation of zero resistance. The
"trance" refers not to the moment of discovery, but when he
received the Nobel Prize and probably had to dance with the
Queen of Sweden.] |
Back to Bibliography
Conventional HVDV Transmission
|
Neptune Regional
Transmission System
[This is a merchant
transmission company formed to sell power from New Jersey
into the Long Island market over an HVDC submarine cable
made by Pirelli/Prysmian with power electronics bySiemens.
The capacity 660 MW at 500 kV and 1320 A over a length of 65
miles, most of it under water. Attempts have been made
in several locations to establish merchant transmission
links, but this is the only one to actually get built.] |
|
ABB Tutorial on HVDC Using Itaipu as Example
[Itaipu
is the longest and highest capacity HVDC transmission line
in the world, 6.3 GW with a pole to pole voltage +/-600 kV,
running 1590 km from the Itaipu Falls on the Parana River
bordering Paraguay and Brasil to Sao Paolo and Rio de
Janeiro in the east. The hydro generators output 50 Hz
to supply Paraguay whereas Brasil uses 60 Hz, thus one of
the reasons for this cable. This "frequency issue" is
the fault of the English in the 19th
century...seriously...go look it up.] |
| "Comparison
of Costs and Benefits for DC and AC Transmission," PI.
J. P. Stovall, ORNL Report 6204, February 1987.
[This is a great
document which we used in the EPRI
e-pipe study and which
was underwritten by PECO, ConEd and BPA back in the days
before deregulation. Be sure to check out
Alan Wolsky's more recent tome as well which includes
superconductivity.] |
|
HVDC Interties in Japan
[Map and specs of the
50-60 Hz back-to-backs in Japan. Again, blame the
English for this conundrum.] |
| "Solid
DC Submarine Cable Insulated with PPLP (Polypropylene
Laminated Cable)," R. Hata, Sumitomo Bakun Submarine
2005 Cable Project Proposal
[An
interesting proposal by Sumitomo to build a 400 mile
submarine cable from the Bakun hydro project in Malaysia to
Indonesia and an equivalent to the Philippines, whose cost
would be offset by carbon credits under Kyoto. It is
opposed by environmental groups because it would require
more dam construction in the Bakun National Park.] |
|
ABB Three Gorges Web Site
[ABB has won the HVDC
transmission contract for wheeling the 18 GW from Three
Gorges to the industrial east coast of Chine.] |
Back to Bibliography
Superconductivity at EPRI
|
SuperGrid White Paper
[A slick brochure
handout describing the project] |
|
SuperGrid Functional Characteristics
[Describes the overall
technical specifications for two embodiments, 1)
SuperSuburb, loosely based on the electricity and
transportation requirements of a Silicon Valley community
such as San Jose, and 2) SuperTie, a 10 GW bi-directions
cross-continental SuperCable to effect diurnal trading
between California and an Atlantic Seaboard "California
Equivalent."] |
|
SuperGrid Executive Presentation
[A massive PowerPoint
file (11 MB) for use by EPRI executives and members.
It contains material from just about every SuperGrid talk
I've given over the past 5 years] |
|
EPRI Program 122: Power Delivery Applications for
Superconductivity
[Web site for the
non-SuperGrid EPRI superconductivity program involving SMES,
FCL and system impact projects.] |
Back to Bibliography
Room Temperature
Superconductivity
| F. London, Superfluids, 1950 |
| "Possibility
of Synthesizing an Organic Superconductor," W. A.
Little, Phys. Rev. 134, A1416 (1964).
[In this paper, Little
examines and elaborates a speculation by F. London that
macromolecules might exhibit superfluid-like properties in
the context of the BSC model formulated a few years earlier.
However, in the molecular structure proposed by Little,
excitons on polarizable side group molecules replace phonons
as the "boson glue" pairing carriers on a conducting polymer
backbone. Curiously, Bill speculates that such a structure
might be capable of self-replication or "reproduction."] |
| "Superconductivity
at Room Temperature," W. A. Little, Scientific American
212, 21 (1965). [This
was the paper that inspired Rick Greene and myself to begin
our (to date unsuccessful) search for the realization of
Bill's model in charge-transfer and polymer organics.
You can't always get what you want...go to
SuperTunes below] |
| "Dynamic
Effective Electron-Electron Interaction in the Vicinity of a
Polarizable Molecule," W. A. Little and H. Gutfreund,
Phys. Rev. B 4, 817 (1971).
[Numerical calculation of the
spatial, but not momentum, dependence of the electron-exciton
coupling.] |
| "Proposed
Model of a High-Temperature Excitonic Superconductor,"
D. Davis, H. Gutfreund, and W. A. Little, Phys. Rev. B 13,
4766 (1976). [The bottom line is that a very particular exciton-fermion
coupling k-space dispersion is required to favor
superconducting pairing over dimerization into a static
Peierls-Froehlich state.] |
| V. L. Ginzburg, Usp. Fiz. Nauk 101,
185 (1970) [Sov. Phys. Usp. 13,335 (1970)]. |
| "Model
for an Exciton Mechanism of Superconductivity," D.
Allender, J. Bray and J. Bardeen, Phys. Rev. B 7, 1020
(1973). [Speculation that
carries at a metal-semiconductor interface may couple to
excitons in the semiconductor leading to a Little-like
pairing (curiously there is no reference to any of Little's
papers). Many have searched for this effect, and none
(reproducible) have been found.] |
| "Comment
on 'Model for an Exciton Mechanism of Superconductivity',"
J. C. Inkson and P. W. Anderson, Phys. Rev. B 8, 4429
(1973). [Claims a technical
error was made by ABB.] |
| "Comment
on 'Model for an Exciton Mechanism of Superconductivity' --
A Reply," D. Allender, J. Bray and J. Bardeen, Phys.
Rev. B 8, 4433 (1973).
[Asserts the IA model
does not correspond to theirs. Still no clear experimental
one way or the other.] |
| V. L. Ginzburg, Sov. Phys. Usp. 34,283
(1991)]. |
|
June
2005 Notre Dame Workshop on the Possibility of RTSC |
| "Design
for a Room Temperature Superconductor," W. E. Pickett,
BES Workshop on Superconductivity, May 2006.
[Better bone up on
Diophantine problems before reading this. A review of
Fibonacci sequences may be useful as well. I am NOT
kidding!] |
| FAST FORWARD |
| "Researchers
Find Extraordinarily High Temperature Superconductivity in
Bio-Inspired Nanopolymer," Paul M. Grant, Physics Today, May 1998.
[My whimsical SciFi
essay covering the great discovery in 2028 of an embodiment
of Bill Little's model of exciton mediated
superconductivity. You eventually "get what you need." (see
SuperTunes)] |
Back to Bibliography
Miscellanea
Global
Climate Change
Recently, my 15 year old son took a week
long summer course in public speaking held at UC Berkeley. At
their "final exam," each of the 30+ students was free to hold forth
on any subject of their choice. More than half chose some
aspect of global climate change...but few were aware of the
scientific evidence, pro or can, that anthropogenic emissions might
be the cause!
|
"Defusing
the Global Warming Time Bomb," J Hansen, Scientific American,
March 2004, p.68.
[This article argues
the source of the currently observed global warming arises from
greenhouse-gas emissions and their accrued concentration. On
the other hand, the author points out that carbon dioxide and
methane levels have not reached IPCC predicted levels and that
amelioration of their effects is well within reach during the 21st
century.] |
| "How
Did Humans First Alter Global Climate?," W. F. Ruddiman,
Scientific American, March 2005, p.46.
[This article presents
an hypothesis that the invention of agriculture some eight
millennia ago and the resulting methane emissions actually
forestalled a cyclical ice age that would be ending in the
present era.] |
| "Design
Elements of a Mandatory Market-Based Greenhouse Gas
Regulatory System," P. V. Domenici and J. Bingaman,
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, White Paper
February 2006.
["The purpose of this
document is to lay out some of the key questions and design
elements of a national greenouse gas program in order to
facilitate discussion ant development of consensus around a
specific (future) bill." A bipartisan White Paper targeted
toward a potential Congressional action defining American
policy on global climate change.] |
NIETC
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 directs the
Department of Energy (DOE) to designate "National Interest Electric
Transmission Corridors" (NIETC) and grants the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC) the power to issue construction permits
within the corridors. It also grants the developer of transmission
lines within a NIETC the ability to acquire rights-of-way by eminent
domain. Several large utilities have already obtained
NIETC permits for the construction of high-voltage overhead lines.
This means many, if not most, of the constrained interstate
corridors in the "national grid" will be addressed by conventional
line and cable technologies, well before superconducting cables are
considered sufficiently tested and commercially available.
Below are some links to details about NIETC and relevant
technologies.
Hydrogen
There is a mutual fungibility linking
hydrogen and electricity. Each can be rather readily converted
into the other via electrolysis and the fuel cell cycle, and, in
principle, can be transported over long distances. There are
even "hydrogen bigots" that believe hydrogen can almost completely
supplant electricity! Moreover, hydrogen can be more easily
adapted to transportation than electricity. The relative "hydricity"
mix in a Hydrogen Society will be an interesting exercise for the
next generation.
Really, Really BIG
Projects
"High Capacity Superconducting dc Cables"
as described in my BES Applications Panel presentation are enormous
construction projects. Here are some examples of others past, present
and future.
Back to Bibliography
SuperTunes
| "You
Can't Always Get What You Want...," M. Jagger and K.
Richards, (Let It Bleed, ca. 1969).
[Both Bill Little and I want
this played at our respective funerals. The legend is that
Mick wanted to get a "cherry coke" at a London "chemist's"
who were out of cherries and cherry syrup. He was thus
told, "You can't always get what you want." This
typifies the long search for room temperature
superconductivity. Enjoy.} |
| "Tomorrow,"
R. Seger, (ca. 1970s).
[A parable on the
difficulties of predicting the future...like applications of
superconductivity!] |
| "Roddy
McCorley," Ethna Carberry, (A Ballad of the Irish
Rebellion of 1798, lyrics ca. 1890).
[Nothing to do with
superconductivity, although the underlying ideas that
eventually explained it were developed by the Irish
physicists Michael Faraday and William Thomsen. If you
ever wonder why immigrants come to America, here's one...at
home you got hung if you spoke out.] |
| "The Skye Boat Song,"
Harold Boulton, (ca. 1930s, lyrics based on a 18th Century
Scottish aire). [Relates the
escape of Charles Stuart to the Isle of Skye after his
disastrous defeat at the hands of the English at Culludon.
Maybe he had some members of Clan Grant on board as well.
Fortunately, many Scots remained to later create rise to
James Clerk Maxwell, James Dewar and Peter Higgs.] |
Back to Bibliography
|
