As larger sized renewable power plants are built across the United States there should be a need to construct high capacity transmission lines. It has been proposed by many that HVDC (high voltage direct current) superconductor type transmission lines would be a suitable choice to replace the conventional large overhead AC transmission lines that one normally notices near power plants. Overhead AC transmission lines suffer from inherent defects such as line losses, voltage stability and load flow issues during transmission, which makes them less efficient; therefore, in the future companies like ATC are considering the replacement of thousands of miles of existing AC transmission lines with more efficient types such as DC superconductors [ 1. Gerdes 2010 - Gigaom.com ]. The HVDC superconductor lines will be used in 3 ft pipelines that contain high temperature based ceramic fibers that will be placed underground. Since these are high temperature superconductors they will most likely have need for supercooling methods such as using liquid nitrogen etc. Also, the brand new transmission lines will be needed over hundreds/thousands of miles in order to deliver electrical power from outlying rural areas to high population cities. One major company in the US called American Superconductor Corporation has made plans to mass produce these type of DC superconductor lines. This company is working with the Tres Amigas Superstation project located in New Mexico where it will serve as a hub for three major power networks across the US. The Tres Amigas Superstation should be able to assist the realization of large wind farms that can serve up several Giga Watts of power. The superconductor infrastructure built by American Superconductor Corporation claim that these high energy lines can handle up to 5 Giga Watts of power. As the superconductor pipeline 'highway' develops so should the realization of large wind turbine mass production facilities and perhaps even similar, mass production of solar photovoltaics, which should create more jobs. These type of major projects should allow for continued job development within the United States related to Renewable Energy.
The Tres Amigas Superstation will provide 50 jobs plus the many construction jobs used to create a facility that is around 20 square miles in size. Superconductor pipelines should also allow large solar energy power plants to be constructed also. Solar thermal power plants are steadily increasing in power capacity as time goes on correlated with the improvement in materials and other related technologies. Multi-hundred Mega Watt solar thermal power plants already exist in California. An advantage with underground superconductor pipelines is that it is possible to place them near railroads or highways. The construction of superconductor pipelines should create many jobs for pipe fitters and cable installers. The supercooling of these type of high temperature superconductors is what makes it hard to implement on a wide scale, since most technical articles stipulate that some type of supercritical fluid such as liquid nitrogen, hydrogen etc is needed. I did however notice, that one of the companies chosen for the construction of the cable pipelines also works with supercooling with water which would be a much more controllable and cost effective method to manage DC superconductors. The use of advanced water power technologies is developing technology that is also being funded by the government which will apply towards several other types of renewable or energy related applications and also create more jobs. Recent energy bills such as the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 stipulates the need for the replacement of overhead AC power lines across the country. However, these types of transmission lines may just be replaced with more efficient overhead AC transmission lines, which would apply more towards urban city transmission areas. In summary, it is estimated that it will cost around $2 trillion in capital to construct the overall 'Electric Smart Grid' by 2030 across the United States, the majority of the money being spent on transmission and distribution networks which would include intelligent computer networks. [ 2. Rubens 2008 - Gigaom.com ]. Computer simulation networks have been built to demonstrate the use of parallel processors of several GHz used to manage superconductor swithcing circuits as well as directing data flow, such computer capabilities could help manage the digital information from power grid networks at rates of over 10 Gbps [ 3. Yorozu S. et al 1999 ]. Such information flow from power networks should require adequate IT management capabilities, which will also be a large source of potential jobs.
REFERENCES
1. "The Future of Smart Grid Transmission Superconductivity High Voltage Power Lines", Nov 2010 - Gigaom.com, Gerdes J.
2. "A Reliable Green Grid Could Need $2 Trillion", Feb 2009 - Gigaom.com, Rubens C.
3. "System Demonstration of a Superconducting Communication System", IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity vol 9 issue 2 pg. 2975-2980, Yorozu S., Hashimoto Y., Numata H., Nagasawa S., Tahara S.
KEYWORDS: Electric Smart Grid, Superconductor Switching Circuits, American Superconductor Corporation, HVDC Superconductor Transmission Lines, Pipe Fitters, Cable Installers, Information Management of Power Networks, Superconductor Superstation Hubs, Gigawatt Superconductor Pipelines, American Clean Energy Act
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