Roads for HTS power applications to go into the real world: Cost issues and technical issues Original Research Article

Owing to recent progress of high temperature superconductor (HTS) technology, Bi2223/Ag-sheathed tapes are produced in production scale and a 100 m long YBCO has been developed. R&D of various HTS power apparatuses are ongoing in many countries. Technical feasibility of HTS apparatuses is being demonstrated and now the economic feasibility needs to be demonstrated. In the paper, costs of HTS conductors are projected and the required costs of HTS conductors are estimated for the HTS apparatuses to be cost-completive to conventional or alternative apparatuses and technological key issues are also studied. Based on these studies, road maps for the HTS power apparatuses to go into the real world are discussed. In the discussions importance of R&Ds of industrial applications is pointed on the way to the developments of large scale power apparatuses.