Tech and Telecom

Japan Launches The World’s Most Efficient Electricity Cable

Looks like lossless power transmission is no longer a hypothetical scenario. It’s only the first quarter of 2022 and we’ve already started hearing about some impressive technological advancements. First sodium-ion batteries and now, a superconducting power transmission technology, which delivers electricity while promising zero transmission losses.

It claims to offer a potentially cost-effective substitute for operating trains and might act as a possible countermeasure to global warming. However, as per recent reports, the technology has entered the practical completion phase in Japan.

Japan’s railway-affiliated research institute has laid a 1.5-km superconducting transmission cable at a facility in Miyazaki Prefecture, where it is running demonstration tests on this technology.

How it Works

Transmission losses mainly occur when electricity gets converted to heat due to the electrical resistance of the wire. However, when a transmission line is cooled to -269 Degrees Celcius and put into a superconducting state using liquid helium, the electrical resistance of the wire becomes zero, eliminating all kinds of power losses.

Initially, the technology’s cost had been a major hurdle in its mass production but since liquid nitrogen goes into a superconducting state at -196 Degrees Celcius, it can now be used as a coolant, which is 10% cheaper than the standard liquid helium.

Benefits of This Tech

The Railway Technical Research Institute, based in Tokyo, has discovered a way to coat transmission lines with this less expensive coolant. For now, the test cable can carry the railway-required 1,500 volts and several hundred amperes.

According to the Japanese Institute of Energy Economics, the country loses 4% of its generated electricity while it is being delivered. The country’s railways use about 17 billion kilowatt-hours a year, and 4% of that is about 700 million kilowatt-hours, equivalent to what 160,000 ordinary households require.

Not The First

Given that transmission loss is a serious issue in many countries across the globe, Japan is not alone in making advances in superconducting power transmission technology.

Previously in November 2021, China’s state-owned transmission company installed a 1.2-km superconducting line in Shanghai. While, in Germany, the Ministry of Economy and Energy had initiated a project in 2020 that aimed at laying a 12-km superconducting transmission line under Munich.

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Published by
Sarwat Rizvi