Superconducting City at Hannover Messe 2012

The group presentation “SuperConducting City” at HANNOVER MESSE has become an international meeting place of the superconducting sector. In Hall 13 companies and research organisations from all over the world showcase their products and research findings for superconducting applications in power generation and transmission, drive systems, grid protection and manufacturing industry.

SuperConducting City benefits from its close links with the flagship fair “Energy”, which takes place simultaneously at HANNOVER MESSE. “Superconducting is an efficiency-enhancing technology which opens up new potential for conserving energy, materials and space. Significant progress has been achieved in recent years. This manifests itself in the availability of fault current limiters incorporating second-generation superconducting tapes, as well as superconducting-based generators for commercial applications. Under the umbrella of the world’s largest industrial show SuperConducting City provides a highly effective showcase for such innovations,” explains Dr. Joachim Bock, Vice President of the German Superconducting Industry Association.

This year’s SuperConducting City will provide clear insights into innovative applications and visionary projects. The line-up will include superconducting components deployed in the European cable project “AmpaCity”. RWE, Nexans and the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology have teamed up to install what is currently the world’s longest superconducting cable. Covering a distance of one kilometre between two transformer substations in the city of Essen, this three-phase concentric cable operates at 10 kV and offers a transmission capacity of 40 MW. This is the first time that a superconducting cable has been combined with a resistive superconducting fault current limiter in the context of a practical field trial.

A further highlight at SuperConducting City will be the project entitled “iSFCL”. Bruker Energy & Supercon Technologies (BEST), Schneider Electric and Stadtwerke Augsburg have joined forces to develop and produce a fast, self-activating superconducting fault current limiter (iSFCL), which will then undergo a nine-month field trial. Such limiters prevent damage to electrical switchgear caused by short circuits, generator malfunctions, lightning strikes, etc. Scheduled to run for three years, this project has a total budget of €7.7 million, 50% of which will be contributed by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. In future, superconducting fault current limiters will play an important role in safeguarding energy-efficient connections between decentralised power plants and the public grid.

At this year's SuperConducting City Oerlikon Leybold Vacuum, an international specialist for high-tech vacuum solutions, will present innovative cooling systems for high-temperature superconductors. One example is the directly driven single-stage Gifford McMahon (GM) COOLPOWER 250 MD. This so-called “cold head” delivers excellent cooling performance (more than 200 W at 80° K). In addition, it is easy to operate, highly reliable, causes only minimal vibration and requires very little maintenance.

Superconducting will also be on the agenda at “Life needs Power” in Hall 12. On 25 April visitors can attend lectures given by Nexans and Schneider Electric on topics such as “Medium voltage instead of 110 kV – superconducting cables make this possible” and “Short-circuit current limitation by means of superconducting”.

Pollution Solution readers can register for free entrance tickets to Hannover Messe 2012 when they apply online at http://www.hannovermesse.de/en/promo?qfcu4. The special eTicket promotion code qfcu4 should appear automatically when you use this weblink, and is valid for the number of personalised eTickets ordered. Each eTicket is worth €58 and is valid for the duration of the show. After registration, you will receive a personalised ticket by email: print-out the ticket in advance, and present it at the entrance. Each individual eTicket is valid for Hannover Messe 2012; it can also be used to travel free on public transport in the Greater Hannover area on 23 – 27 April.