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Performance
of 50 Completed ATP Projects
Status
Report - Number 2
NIST SP 950-2
Chapter
6 - Manufacturing
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American
Superconductor Corporation (ASC)
High-Temperature Superconducting
Coils for Electric Motor Efficiency
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| Large
electric motors of 1,000 horsepower (hp) or more are used in many
applications across the U.S. economy. If more-efficient motors could
be developed and replace older ones, the savings would be substantial.
The new motors would consume less electricity than older motors. In
addition to cutting electricity bills, the switch to more-efficient
motors would decrease the need for electricity production, with concomitant
reductions in the burning of fossil fuels and in the resulting air
pollution. |
COMPOSITE
PERFORMANCE SCORE
(Based on a four star rating.)
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Harnessing Superconductivity to Increase Electric Motor
Efficiency
American Superconductor Corporation (ASC), a young development-stage company,
was eager to undertake the long-term research and development needed to
capture the advantages offered by high-temperature superconductivity for
large electric motors. But it lacked the necessary financial resources
to do it. At the time of the ATP award in 1992, there was little competitive
pressure in the electric power-generation industry, so few incentives
existed to reduce costs. And, although the Department of Energy followed
the ATP award with a contract to ASC, that source of funding was unavailable
for the initial research the company proposed to do. ASC reports that
the ATP award made the research project possible. Without the award, the
company would have been unable to do the research and development on the
new technology, even on a delayed-development schedule.
Superconductivity
Reduces Energy Losses
The most significant energy losses in motors come from resistive heating
in the windings, so superconducting motors with almost no electrical resistance
in the windings could realize important efficiency gains. To be able to
build such motors required significant advances in the design, fabrication,
and winding of HTS wires in geometries required for motor winding.
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| A 286 hp demonstration
motor constructed by Reliance Electric with HTS windings supplied
by ASC. |
In addition to industrial
motors, the new technology would be useful in generators, transmission
cables, and superconducting magnetic energy storage systems. It also has
potential applications in x-ray lithography, ion implantation, medical
cyclotrons, magnetically levitated trains, magneto-hydrodynamic ship propulsion
systems, and magnetic separation for materials processing and ore recovery.
Indeed, opportunities abound for reducing electric energy use via applications
of the ATP-funded technology.
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| Placing 1000
horsepower HTS motor coils into a cryogenic cooling system. |
Larger and Larger
Motors
Researchers from ASC and its partner, Reliance Electric Company (now part
of Rockwell International), built a 5-hp HTS motor as proof of concept.
This team and researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory then fabricated
and tested a series of racetrack-shaped HTS coils of a type needed for
motors. This effort included studies of mechanical and electrical properties
that affect performance, as well as the development of fabrication techniques
for producing flexible, durable wires in increasing lengths. Soon after
the project ended in June 1995, ASC built a 200-hp HTS motor for testing
and demonstration. The company is planning to complete development work
on a laboratory model 1,000-hp HTS motor in late 1998 or early 1999 and
then begin development of a 5,000-hp motor. Each increment in motor size
represents substan-tial advances in the underlying technology.
A Long-Term Endeavor
on Track
ASC has viewed this endeavor from the outset as requiring a long-term
commitment and substantial infusions of capital along the way to reach
full commercial deployment of the HTS technology in huge electric motors.
The effort is on track. In the meantime, ASC has launched its first commercial
product related to the ATP-funded technology, the CryoSaver current leads,
which carry power into HTS devices from external electricity supplies.
Although this is not the ultimate commercialization goal envisioned for
the technology, CryoSaver current leads provide revenue and help maintain
investor interest in the company.
The CryoSaver product
has received technical recognition as well as early commercial success.
In 1996, it won Industry Week magazine’s Technology of the Year award
and the 100 Award from R&D magazine, which selects the 100 most important
innovations of the year.
An HTS motor of at
least 1,000 hp is needed to achieve efficiencies and cost savings in line
with the project goals. ASC is deliberately waiting until it proves the
concept at the 5,000-hp level before moving the HTS motor into commercialization.
The company expects to demonstrate a commercial-scale 1,000-hp motor in
1999.
Following the ATP
award, ASC received funding from the Department of Energy as part of a
$21 million motor program with Reliance Electric and several other companies
to complete the development work. In addition, it raised $27 million via
a second public stock offering and attracted another $10 million in private
investment from the electric utility industry. It is actively protecting
its intellectual property position through patent filings.
Potential for Huge
Benefits
Users of ASC’s CryoSaver current leads have achieved better operating
efficiencies by improving the transmission of electricity for cryogenic
devices. In the future, users of large electric motors (electric utilities,
steel mills, water pumping stations) will be able to have motors that
are smaller, more reliable, and more efficient than today’s motors.
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| Pole set and
double pancacke HTS coils for 1000 horsepower Reliance Electric motor. |
This may be particularly
important when competition is introduced into the electric power industry,
which ASC has selected as its first commercial target. Companies in that
industry have generally operated as regulated monopolies. With competition
in the production of electricity, cost savings will be far more important
in the electric power generation marketplace. Some of those cost savings
are likely to be achieved by electric power generation companies switching
from conventional large electric motors to HTS motors from ASC.
Lower costs for power
generation companies, together with pricing pressure as several companies
compete for the right to supply commercial and residential customers,
is likely to result in cost savings at the power generation level being
passed on, at least partially, to customers. The end result of this chain
of events, which is still in the future, is that electricity users are
likely to benefit from lower electricity costs enabled by electricity
producers’ use of the new HTS motors.
The possibility exists
for a large return to the economy as a whole from the implementation of
this new technology, since even small gains in motor efficiency translate
into large energy savings to the companies and to the nation.
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Project
Highlights
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PROJECT:
To develop high-temperature superconducting (HTS) wire fabrication
and winding techniques that will enable the development of large
HTS electric motors with almost no electrical resistance. This advance
will reduce the motors’ electricity consumption and save the
country hundreds of millions of dollars in energy costs each year.
Duration: 7/1/1992 — 6/30/1995
ATP Number: 91-01-0146
FUNDING (in
thousands):
| ATP |
$1,883
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42%
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| Company |
2,579
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58%
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| Total |
$4,462
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
ASC achieved its goal of developing HTS wire fabrication and winding
techniques. It demonstrated the use of racetrack-shaped HTS coils
in a 5-hp motor early in the project and in a 200-hp motor soon
after project completion. The company also:
- received
six patents for technologies related to the ATP project:
“Current Limiters in Power Utility Applications” (No.
5,390,064: filed 7/7/1992, granted 2/14/1995),
“Superconducting Rotor”(No. 5,482,919: filed 9/15/1993,
granted 1/9/1996),
“Method of Making Superconducting Wind-and-React Coils”
(No. 5,531,015: filed 1/28/1994, granted 7/2/1996), “Superconducting
Magnetic Coil”(No. 5,525,583: filed 2/7/1994,
granted 6/11/1996), “Magnetostrictive Superconducting Actuator”
(No. 5,585,772: filed 1/11/1995, granted 12/17/1996), and “Variable
Profile Superconducting Magnetic Coil”
(No. 5,581,220: filed 10/10/1995, granted 12/3/1996);
- applied for
eight additional patents for technologies related to the ATP project;
- won Industry
Week magazine’s Technology of the Year Award in 1996;
- won the
100 Award in 1996 from R&D magazine, which selects the 100
most important innovations of the year, for its development of
CryoSaver current leads, a spin-off product related to the ATP
project;
- received
(with partner Reliance Electric) $10.2 million in Department of
Energy Strategic Partnership Initiative awards in 1996 for cost-shared
development of high-horsepower, commercial-scale motors;
- received
a $10-million investment from Électricité de France,
the French power company, in April 1997; and
- raised $27
million via a second public stock offering in February 1994.
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COMMERCIALIZATION
STATUS:
Commercialization is in progress. A partnership with Reliance Electric
will help commercialize the large-motor technology in the form of
1,000- and 5,000-hp motors. In the meantime, ASC has introduced
a related product, CryoSaver current leads, in 1996. Users of this
product have already achieved better operating efficiencies in magnetic
resonance imaging and commercial energy storage systems.
CITATIONS
BY OTHERS OF PROJECT’S PATENTS:
See Figure 6.1.
OUTLOOK:
The project has progressed as planned, and the outlook for achieving
significant energy savings from HTS motors is excellent. Large electric
motors account for about 65 percent of all electricity consumption
in the United States, so even small efficiency gains in this application
are likely to translate into cost savings of several hundreds of
millions of dollars for the nation. In the future, large users of
electric power will be able to construct new facilities with smaller,
more-efficient and reliable motors based on HTS technology. Other
applications of the technology could help residential electricity
users in the United States save millions of dollars in energy costs
each year.
Composite
Performance Score:
COMPANY:
American Superconductor Corporation (ASC)
2 Technology Drive
Westborough, MA 01581
Contact:
Joe Sollecito
Phone: (508) 836-4200
Number of employees: 59 at project start, 146 at the end
of 1997
Informal
collaborators: Reliance Electric Company (acquired by Rockwell
International in 1995), Oak Ridge National Laboratory
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of Contents or go to next section.
Date created: April
2002
Last updated:
April 12, 2005
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