Superconducting Lines for the Transmission of Large Amounts of Electrical Power Over Great Distances: Garwin–Matisoo Revisited Forty Years Later

In 1966, following a decade of discovery and development on A15 compounds, Richard Garwin and Juri Matisoo [1], two research staff members then in the IBM Research Division, submitted for publication a paper examining the prospect to employ one of the most promising of these materials, Nb3Sn, in a cable system for transmission of electricity. The scale of their proposal was truly enormous -100 GW (+/100 kV at 500 kA direct current) over a distance of 1000 km, the entire length refrigerated by liquid helium. At the time, such a cable would have been capable of carrying half the entire electric power generated in the United States, and about one-tenth today. This paper will revisit their vision in the context of the subsequent discovery of high temperature superconductivity twenty years later, and the now emerging availability of long lengths of high performance wire and tape for operation in the 20-80 K range. Whereas the scenario set by Garwin and Matisoo addressed the one-way transmission of electricity from remote coal and nuclear generation multi-plant "farms" to large population centers, we will extend their picture to include two-way transmission on a diurnal or longer period to take advantage of regional electricity pricing and production which has resulted from the deregulation of generation. We conclude that the advent of high temperature superconductivity substantially extends and brings closer both the technical and economic feasibility of Garwin and Matisoo's dream. However, we note, as did they, the caveat that "whether it is desirable or necessary is another matter entirely." We believe this question will be decided in the affirmative as societal demands continue to increase for the clean, reliable and ecologically gentle delivery of large amounts of electric power, a need that was foreseen but not as overriding forty years ago as it is now.