Electrical transformers, the giant copper-and-steel structures we see underneath high-voltage lines, have pretty much stayed the same since they were invented by Nikolai Tesla in the 1890s. They exist in every city and are critical for taking high-voltage power from generating stations and converting it to a lower voltage power that people can use in their homes.
The problem is, these transformers are big, old, breaking down and are almost all made in China. New technology being developed by North Carolina-based CREE and North Carolina State University will eventually allow utilities to convert high-voltage power in a 100-pound box, rather than an 10,000 pound sub-station, says Rajeev Ram, program director at the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPAe). "Right now these transformers, all they do is change voltage. They don’t do anything else. You can’t control them," Ram told Discovery News.
NEWS: Energy Grid: Smart Grid Safe from Cyber Attacks?
The new transformers will handle two-way flows of electricity, which happens when folks want to send their own solar rooftop power back to the grid, and better able to sense unusual power fluxes, shortages and potential blackouts. CREE, a Durham-based lighting and electronics firm, made a big breakthrough in recent weeks with successful testing of a tiny, five-millimeter-long silicon carbide superconducting transistor that can handle close to 15 kilovolts of power, compared to the 110 kilovolts carried by transmission lines.
"It's a device that's well on its way," Ram said. While some of this may sound a bit geeky, or perhaps a bit engineer-y, imagine a landscape without power transformers, and maybe even without high-tension lines. Communities would be able to generate power closer to home by using smaller superconducting transformers. Consumers would benefit by having a more reliable power supply, and the ability to put new sources of renewable energy on the grid.
PHOTOS: Better than Transformers: Real-Life Robots
There's also the aesthetics, Ram said. No more creepy high-frequency transformers sitting next to parks, schools or on the other side of your back fence, Ram said. The new superconducting transformers "will look more like a small shed or a cabinet."
Photo courtesy AMSC
Tags: Electricity, Energy, Smart Grid
comments ( )