STI is concentrating on superconducting magnet applications that include NGEM solutions. NGEMs will play an instrumental role in the future competitiveness of electrical grids, industrial manufacturing, and many other applications that utilize industrial scale devices in excess of 5000 horsepower. By offering unprecedented improvements in motor and generator efficiency, NGEMs will provide a solution that addresses the current limitations of conventional technologies. NGEMs are expected to significantly improve the efficiency of industrial electric motors, which use approximately 70% of the electricity consumed by U.S. manufacturers and nearly a quarter of all electricity consumed nationally, according to the Department of Energy (DOE). By utilizing these highly efficient NGEMs, industrial power consumers will benefit from a substantially reduced power infrastructure footprint independent of utility grid build-out projects. The projected cost savings from this greatly improved efficiency last for decades and can easily justify the initial CAPEX of these NGEMs.

The key enabling technology for NGEMs is superconducting wire that can handle very high electrical currents in the presence of a magnetic field (also knowns as 2G HTS wire) such as our Conductus® high-performance magnet wire. Conductus offers a competitive advantage both in economics and performance by consistently demonstrating record-breaking current carrying capability.

Energy Storage An NGEM as an energy storage device at a solar plant, which could be activated at night to provide accumulated power to the grid.

DOE NGEM Project

STI is the prime recipient of a $4.5 million, three-year project award that commenced in June 2017 under the DOE’s broad goal of advancing American manufacturing competitiveness by improving industrial motor efficiency to significantly reduce energy usage and the cost of operation. STI is working on the project in conjunction with TECO Westinghouse Motor Company (TECO), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), and the University of North Texas (UNT).

The NGEM DOE project has three main objectives:

• Phase 1: Continue to improve critical current capacity at 65K in the presence of an operating magnetic field of 1.5 Tesla.  
• Phase 2: Focus on optimizing the design and fabrication of ‘best-in-class’ wire in quantity.
• Phase 3: Build and validate an NGEM component that includes cryogenic testing.

The ultimate program objective is to produce wire that delivers 1,440 amps per centimeter width at 65 Kelvin in a 1.5 Tesla field.

STI is the project leader for this program and brings together industry leaders to support the DOE project goals. Each of the participants brings a key attribute required for the project.

1. STI is developing the high-performance superconducting wire needed for the motor;
2. TECO is focused on the motor components;
3. I.T does the cryogenic packaging and assists in coil design; and
4. UNT runs the testing.

In conjunction with its partners TECO, M.I.T, and UNT, STI has successfully achieved key first-year project milestones.

1. STI produced 2G HTS wire that delivered 1.5X the critical current electrical performance and a 2X increase in in-field magnetic performance over the initial starting performance of the project as outlined in 2017. All these results were verified and confirmed through third-party testing.
2. In parallel, STI’s partners TECO and M.I.T designed and modeled components of a 5000-horsepower motor utilizing STI’s enhanced Conductus wire.