S. Samoilenkov
Faraday 1867 Holdings LLC,
United States
Keywords: high temperature superconductors, hts, magnets
Summary:
High-field magnets made from high temperature superconductors enable fusion devices which are more compact and more economically viable than any of predecessor machines built to date. Recent projects like 20 T toroidal magnetic field coil (TFMC) by Commonwealth Fusion Systems significantly de-risked the design of magnetic confinement devices such as tokamaks, stellarators and magnetic mirrors. It is expected that in just few years from now one or more technological paths will result in prototypes built with a positive energy balance of the fusion reaction demonstrated. This will open the way to limitless fusion energy source which is not dependent on fossils, doesn’t require any scarce fuel to operate, can be made dispatchable and intrinsically safe. HTS tape based on REBCO superconductor is a key component of high-field magnetic systems for these fusion devices. The HTS material is typically produced with an advanced vacuum deposition technology, and there are only a few suppliers worldwide that are capable to make HTS tape for fusion magnets today. It is fair to say that the HTS is still not commoditized. As fusion companies on a path to commercialization require always increasing volume of HTS tape, the scale up process for production capacity of HTS tape is a major challenge. Noteworthy, not only the large volume of high quality HTS tape is essential, but also the low cost of HTS tape is important to enable the commercialization of fusion. With the development of fusion (and with the start of commercialization of other HTS-based technologies in multiple industries too!), HTS tape production becomes an attractive case for investors. There’s almost limitless potential for HTS tape market to grow and the drivers for this demand are extremely powerful – urgent need for decarbonization, high cost of electricity and industrial metals, forecasted shortage of critical resources for energy transition. Faraday Factory Japan (a subsidiary of Faraday 1867 Holdings) has developed the approach based on ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD) and pulsed laser deposition (PLD) techniques to produce high-quality HTS tape. This approach has enabled us not only to meet rigorous technical specifications that are needed for fusion magnets, but also to produce HTS tape at the unprecedented scale and to decrease price considerably over the past years. In this contribution we will present our vast experience in scaling up HTS tape production, analyse the future market potential, challenges and key metrics. We believe that HTS tape production is increasingly becoming a great business opportunity with high return and low technological risk that should soon attract attention of educated tough-tech investors.