Cooking up a conductive alternative to copper with aluminum

In the world of electricity, copper is king—for now. That could change with new research from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) that is serving up a recipe to increase the conductivity of aluminum, making it ...

New superconductor technology for the transmission grid

The German energy transition makes it necessary to extend the transmission grid. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), together with the grid operator TenneT, now studies the use of superconductor technology as an alternative ...

With changes, the grid can take it

Over the next two decades, the U.S. electric grid will face unprecedented technological challenges stemming from the growth of distributed and intermittent new energy sources such as solar and wind power, as well as an expected ...

Solar and wind energy may stabilise the power grid

(Phys.org)—Renewable energies such as wind, sun and biogas are set to become increasingly important in generating electricity. If increasing numbers of wind turbines and photovoltaic systems feed electrical energy into ...

The sun also flips: 11-year solar cycle wimpy, but peaking

(Phys.org) —In a 3-meter diameter hollow aluminum sphere, Cary Forest, a UW-Madison physics professor, is stirring and heating plasmas to 500,000 degrees Fahrenheit to experimentally mimic the magnetic field-inducing cosmic ...

Researcher modernizes US power grid

Although the U.S. electric power industry is one of the greatest engineering marvels of the 20th century, aging technology and an increase in demand create problems for the electricity infrastructure that need to be fixed. ...

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