Shin'ichi Mukoyama, Noboru Ishii, Hiroyuki Iizuka, Masashi Yagi, Hironobu Hirano, Satoru Maruyama, Yukihiro Yagi, Masanao Mimura, Osamu Sato and Ayafumi Kikuchi
Abstract
Furukawa Electric is participating in the Super-ACE Project for R&D on fundamental technologies for superconducting AC power equipment that was initiated by METI (The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) in FY2000, and is also carrying out R&D for the High-Tc superconducting electric power cable (HTS cable), which can miniaturize cable size while supplying large electrical power. The introduction of the HTS cable into an electrical network can be expected to produce significant effects because it can meet needs for control of the global emission of CO2, alleviation of environmental impact, improvement in stability levels and reduction in costs in the network.
Practical use of superconducting cable requires the development of technologies for reducing losses in large capacity cables and cooling long cables. In developing the low loss cable, Furukawa has achieved a technological level of 1 W/m at 3 kA by pitch adjustment and by using twisted filament wires. In terms of cooling long cables, Furukawa has manufactured a 30-m HTS cable model, thereby improving thermal contraction properties, heat loss properties and liquid nitrogen flow. With the success of 30-m cable test, it is planned that field testing of a 500-m, 77-kV single-core HTS cable will be carried out in 2004 at the Yokosuka Laboratory of CRIEPI (Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry). This field testing will include a construction test, a cooling test, a long term voltage and current load test and so on.
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