The nation needs to build “an electronet,” a unified national smart grid, with high-voltage, low-loss underground wires that deliver renewable energy…Such a grid would require a $400 billion investment upfront, but would pay off in just over three years, he said, because the nation spends $120 billion annually on costs from power failures attributed to the existing grid.   Al Gore   November 9, 2008

A SuperGrid has been proposed to tie together the nation’s utilities.   A superconducting Tieline would serve the country well in this era of terrorist threats. The reliability and availability of cost-effective electric power is also a major problem following natural disasters such as earthquakes, ice storms, hurricanes and floods, since the nation’s electric power utilities are only connected regionally.  In the Far West, for example, only north-south tielines exist, and there are choke points.  As a consequence, power cannot be imported from, or exported to, the East or Midwest. With heavy air-conditioning loads and other factors already resulting in brownouts and serious power shortages - a national Tieline connecting all part of the Nation would offer major benefits.

An “electronet” has also been proposed, to modernize our aging transmission grid and extend it to connect remote renewable generation. However, the proposals may assume cryogenically cooled superconductors will be utilized, complicating the system by requiring many thousands of miles of tubing filled with liquid hydrogen, a costly refrigerant. Ultraconductors have extremely high current densities at ambient temperatures.  They require no refrigeration whatsoever.

The UltraGrid concept is totally compatible with potentially better, revolutionary new energy conversion, systems under development. These generators are inherently capable of installation at the point of use. They can later turn vehicles into power plants - wirelessly connected to the grid when parked. These systems, use energy never before commercialized. They can power individual homes, stores and factories. For more information, see the website: www.magneticpowerinc.com  

Ultraconductors can eventually replace copper wire in many types of motors and generators, helping to greatly reduce total energy demand. Due to the resistance heating of wire, power transmission lines in the U.S. lose 11% of the electricity they carry in the form of heat - at a cost exceeding $80 billion annually. Each 1% reduction of these transmission losses would save above $500 million every year. Load leveling on a national basis might save an additional 5% of energy loss and 2% of new plant construction could be unnecessary - adding up to a savings of perhaps $65 billion in avoided cost for infrastructure. In addition, national load leveling will reduce the plant construction needed for growing peak power demands. Thus, an UltraGrid Tieline will more than pay for itself.

Ultraconductors in the form of wire and cable are clearly on the horizon. An UltraGrid system could utilize Ultraconductors operating at ambient temperatures. The economics of an electronet would be far more cost-effective, if Ultraconductors are utilized for the major parts of the system rather than cryogenically refrigerated Superconductors.

An electronet composed of Ultraconductors could consist of a buried cable - carrying AC power at 5,000 volts or less, identical in power handling capability to a more than 100,000 volt system on towers - with minimal environmental degradation.  This is due to the extremely high current density.  For additional information, see the website:   www.ultraconductors.com