Energy. The Equinox Summit held in Waterloo Canada 2011 (2011
Equinox Summit: Energy 2030 http://wgsi.org/publications-resources)
identified electricity use as humanity's largest contributor to greenhouse gas
emissions. Our appetite for electricity is growing faster than for any other
form of energy. The communiqué from the summit said 'Transforming the ways we
generate, distribute and store electricity is among the most pressing challenges
facing society today.... If we want to stabilize CO2 levels in our
atmosphere at 550 parts per million, all of that growth needs to be met by
non-carbon forms of energy' (2011 Equinox Summit: Energy 2030 http://wgsi.org/publications-resources).
Superconducting technologies can provide the energy efficiencies to achieve, in
the European Union alone, 33–65% of the required reduction in greenhouse gas
emissions according to the Kyoto Protocol (Hartikainen et al 2003
Supercond. Sci. Technol.16 963). New technologies would include
superconducting energy storage systems to effectively store power generation
from renewable sources as well as high-temperature superconducting systems used
in generators, transformers and synchronous motors in power stations and
heavy-industry facilities. However, to be effective, these systems must be
superior to conventional systems and, in reality, market penetration will occur
as existing electrical machinery is written off. At current write-off rates, to
achieve a 50% transfer to superconducting systems will take 20 years
(Hartikainen et al 2003 Supercond. Sci. Technol.16
963).
