We are an impact company striving to make a difference for society and the planet with key enabling technology.
At the heart of our work is a deep commitment to humanity, the planet and future generations. This mindset drives us to develop technologies that solves the big problems standing in the way to of a cleaner planet through the realisation of a more flexible, reliable and green energy system.
As the world shifts away from fossil fuels toward electrification and carbon-neutral energy sources, our energy systems are under immense pressure.
High-temperature superconductor solutions can enhance grid capacity significantly, however, currently available solutions are limited in scalability and prevent large scale adoption.
Our innovation, the Subracable, will enable full grid implementation.
There is a soaring demand for electrification and the current copper/aluminum-based infrastructure is now reaching its limits.
Nations like Spain, Portugal and France are already facing severe grid instability.
Europe’s plans for massive grid expansions face a raw material constraint: We simply don’t produce enough copper to realise these ambitions.
Electrification and decarbonisation of the EU, and regional energy supply security, require long-distance high-power transmission.
Based on current technology with a conventional copper cable grid, this would require 37 million tons of copper (double of the yearly global production).
Furthermore, it would waste 50 GW of electricity equivalent to the electricity production of about 50 nuclear power plants due to electrical resistance in copper wires (Energy losses = 5 – 8 % / 1000 km).
It also requires large amounts of AC/DC converters and extensive transmission corridors across Europe.
In this scenario, the cost of transmission of renewable energy between regions will exceed the cost of energy production by 2030.
Superconductors can become key to transforming our energy system by addressing production, grid capacity, and baseload challenges.
A new generation of zero resistance power cables will be playing a crucial role in improving energy efficiency and advancing next-generation solutions.
Our innovation, the Subracable, is scalable to extreme lengths and has superior properties. It overcomes the limitations of not only conventional copper cables but also flat tape superconductor solutions when it comes to high current capacity, scalability, thermal robustness, and mechanical flexibility.
Transport 300 times more current (per cross-section of conductors)
Less levelised cost of transmission
Reduction of energy losses
Narrower underground ducts
Reduction of copper need
No need for large and costly AC/DC conversion stations
Fusion is a future source of near-infinite, stable, clean and safe energy for a net-zero world.
It will be an essential component in tomorrow’s energy mix providing stable baseload power presently supplied by fossil fuels.
To phase out gas, coal and oil it will be a possibility to replace conventional power plants with fusion power plants. Most fusion reactor designs require powerful superconducting magnets. Subracable enables the strongest magnets ever built for fusion power reactors.
Fusion is the process that powers the Sun and every other star in the Universe.
Looking at the stars, what you see is billions of nuclei that are joining together in ongoing new constellations releasing huge amounts of kinetic, thermal and radiation energy in an (almost) eternal process.
The fuel for fusion energy in reactors is abundantly available as the deuterium needed can be extracted from seawater and tritium is ‘bred’ in the reactor. Fusion produces almost no radioactive waste and no long-lived waste.
As fusion only happens at extremely high temperatures (+ 100 million °C) and pressures, the fusion reaction stops immediately, if the temperature drops even slightly.
What happens in a fusion process?
In a simple fusion reaction, two light isotopes of hydrogen (deuterium and tritium) fuse together to form a heavier nucleus (helium), releasing a neutron and energy.
In fusion reactors neutrons hit a layer around the reactor plasma, often made of lithium. When the neutron hits the material, its kinetic energy is converted into heat. That heat can heat water into steam and drive a turbine. Turbines can spin generators and thereby produce clean, green and infinite amounts of electricity.
Fusion reactors can operate continuously, reliably and predictably, securing production with no long-lived radioactive waste, CO2 or other GHG emissions.
This stable source of energy can replace fossil fuel power plants and de-carbonise hard-to-abate industries by providing electricity baseload and complementing the intermittent nature of renewable sources, such as wind and solar.
The infrastructure is already in place. Fusion power plants could be Plug and Play, once breakthroughs in fusion technology advances.
Our innovation, the Subracable, is a superconducting bundled wire that enables the strongest magnets ever build – for fusion energy and more.
Subracables fusion magnets compared to low-temperature superconducting magnets
Strength:
3× stronger and highly flexible
REBCO use:
REBCO lowers costs and volume by up to 50%
Material design:
Built-in neutron damage and thermal runaway protection
Efficiency:
5× more energy-efficient magnet operation
