Researchers at Chalmers have discovered that the insulation plastic used in high-voltage cables can withstand a 26 per cent higher voltage if nanometer-sized carbon balls are added. This could result in enormous efficiency gains in the power grids of the future, which are needed to achieve a sustainable energy system.
The renewable energy sources of tomorrow will often be found far away from the end user. Wind turbines, for example, are most effective when placed out at sea. Solar energy will have the greatest impact on the European energy system if focus is on transport of solar power from North Africa and Southern Europe to Northern Europe.
“Reducing energy losses during electric power transmission is one of the most important factors for the energy systems of the future,” says Chalmers researcher Christian Müller. “The other two are development of renewable energy sources and technologies for energy storage.”
Together with colleagues from Chalmers and the company Borealis in Stenungsund, he has found a powerful method for reducing energy losses in alternating current cables. The results were recently published in Advanced Materials, a highly ranked scientific journal.
The researchers have shown that different variants of the C60 carbon ball, a nanomaterial in the fullerene molecular group, provide strong protection against breakdown of the insulation plastic used in high-voltage cables. Today the voltage in the cables has to be limited to prevent the insulation layer from getting damaged. The higher the voltage the more electrons can leak out into the insulation material, a process which leads to breakdown.
It is sufficient to add very small amounts of fullerene to the insulation plastic for it to withstand a voltage that is 26 per cent higher, without the material breaking down, than the voltage that plastic without the additive can withstand.
“Being able to increase the voltage to this extent would result in enormous efficiency gains in power transmission all over the world,” says Christian Müller. “A major issue in the industry is how transmission efficiency can be improved without making the power cables thicker, since they are already very heavy and difficult to handle.”
Read more: Carbon nanoballs can greatly contribute to sustainable energy supply
The Latest on: Carbon nanoballs
[google_news title=”” keyword=”Carbon nanoballs” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Carbon nanoballs
- Carbon Marketson May 8, 2024 at 2:52 am
Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the world’s largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. Reuters provides business, financial ...
- Rolls-Royce Spectre Gets Carbon-Fiber Makeover By Mansoryon April 24, 2024 at 5:00 pm
Mansory's extreme Spectre conversion includes visible carbon accents, massive vents, and 23-24 inch polished wheels. The interior of the Spectre is transformed with leather and carbon fiber ...
- Trillions of Tons of Carbon Are Missing From Climate Modelson April 22, 2024 at 5:11 am
While the world’s soils are home to lots of organic carbon—such as leaf litter and animal waste—inorganic carbon, which is often in the form of solid carbonates, can also leak into the ...
- Reduce your carbon footprint with these 5 climate-friendly recipeson April 20, 2024 at 7:00 am
Agriculture contributes about 25 percent of the world’s carbon emissions, so the choices we make about the food on our plates — and the food that winds up in the trash — matter. There’s ...
- Carbon offsets too often don’t deliver. Inside the race to fix them.on April 18, 2024 at 1:14 pm
in 2021. (Charlie Riedel/AP) They are marketed as a solution for companies and consumers looking to erase their carbon footprint, with promises that money spent on “offsets” will go to ...
- Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 12) review: A legendary enterprise laptop gets a gorgeous redesignon April 18, 2024 at 12:47 am
The advent of Intel Core Ultra inspired Lenovo to redesign its legendary ThinkPad X1 Carbon business laptop, and the results are stunning. This laptop is so light you barely notice it's there ...
- Carbon price fall deprives Europe's green funds of billionson April 17, 2024 at 5:00 pm
FLORENCE/BERLIN, April 18 (Reuters) - A drop in the European Union's carbon price this year could mean that a fund intended to be among the world's biggest schemes for new green technologies will ...
- Our plans to tackle climate change with carbon storage don't add upon April 15, 2024 at 5:00 pm
Plans to tackle climate change by sucking carbon dioxide from the air and storing it underground are wildly unrealistic, according to a new analysis, calling into question our ability to meet ...
- Carbon capture meetings meant to 'educate,' 'not promote' a pipelineon April 15, 2024 at 10:51 am
Doug Goehring, ND Agriculture Commissioner, left, and Collin Peterson, senior advisor for the American Carbon Alliance, were part of a panel discussion called "What Carbon Capture Means for Ag ...
- Deal Dive: Not all climate startups are focused on carbonon April 13, 2024 at 9:00 am
Nobody cared about methane, he said. Companies were instead focused on lowering their carbon emissions. But a few years later, the market is starting to come around. Menlo Park–based Windfall ...
via Bing News