FASTGRID – Cost effective FCL using advanced superconducting tapes for future HVDC grids

  • Project team:

    Weil, Marcel (Project leader ITAS); Alexander Buchholz

  • Funding:

    EU Horizon 2020

  • Start date:

    2017

  • End date:

    2020

  • Project partners:

    CNRS Grenoble; SUPERGRID Institute; Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona; OXOLUTIA SL; THEVA; Ricerca sul Sistema Energetico; Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal; Tel Aviv University; Institute of Electrical Engineering, Slovak Academy of Sciences; Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne; Slovak University of Technology

  • Research group:

    Research for Sustainable Energy Technologies

Project description

Logo FASTGRID

The project FASTGRID aims at significantly enhancing the technical and economical attractiveness of high-temperature superconductors (HTS) for their application in superconducting fault current limiters (SCFCL).

The material development made in FASTGRID will lead to advanced HTS tapes that will be the key for low cost high voltage direct current (HVDC) SCFCL, which will help to remove one of the barriers of HVDC grids called Supergrids, i.e. fault current management. These supergrids are considered as the best solution in economic, technic and security terms to enhance the necessary massive penetration of renewable energies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The main objectives of the FASTGRID project are to:

  • Increase the electrical field that these conductors can withstand under limitation without any degradation or properties
  • Improve the critical current of the conductors
  • Raise the robustness of the tapes against all kinds of operation conditions
  • Functionalize its surface to increase the thermal exchanges with the coolant.

ITAS work packages

As part of WP5 “Dissemination and socio-economic aspects”, ITAS will conduct a life cycle assessment (LCA) to analyze the environmental impacts of various HTS tapes and their different manufacturing routes.

Project website

Funding

This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 721019.

Publications


2022
Journal Articles
Jacob, T.; Buchholz, A.; Noe, M.; Weil, M.
Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Different Cooling Systems for High-Temperature Superconducting Power Cables
2022. IEEE transactions on applied superconductivity, 32 (4), Art.Nr. 4802805. doi:10.1109/TASC.2022.3168239
2021
Presentations
Buchholz, A.; Noe, M.; Weil, M.; Große, V.
Environmental life-cycle assessment of high-temperature superconductor tape production
2021. Energy Transition and Sustainability Conference (APEEN 2021), Online, January 20–21, 2021 
2019
Posters
Buchholz, A.; Große, V.; Weil, M.; Noe, M.
Environmental life-cycle assessment of high-temperature superconductor tape production
2019. 14th European Conference on Applied Superconductivity (EUCAS 2019), Glasgow, United Kingdom, September 1–5, 2019 

Contact

Dr.-Ing. Marcel Weil
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS)
P.O. Box 3640
76021 Karlsruhe
Germany

Tel.: +49 721 608-26718
E-mail