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Comment by vitiral | Hacker News Reader

> Finding a way to reduce energy loss as electricity travels over transmission lines and across wires would profoundly change society. It would deliver nearly unlimited energy

Um... No. Transmission lines is not a serious use-cases of super conductors. I believe current loss rates are in the 2-5% range. Super conductors do not provide energy in and of themselves -- though they are likely a critical component to nuclear fusion, which would.

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Theoretically you could have one side of the world power the other side with solar panels for essentially infinite, cheap power.

It's only "cheap" if the room temperature semiconductor material is cheap and easy to maintain. Also, it's not like solar panels are free.

That’s true, but if it’s a matter of just laying some under sea cables, we’re already really good at that.

Cables made of cooper or optic fiber, both are flexible and can absorb hits and other nasty mechanical stuff.

Most (all?) modern superconductors are ceramics, so it's like having a huge stick made of the porcelain.

We’re talking about a hypothetical thing we don’t even know exists. Maybe it’s like glass that can be drawn out. Maybe you could have cables that are a series of straight ceramic rods with flexible interconnects made of other metals. It’s all just hypothetical.

Yep, but a room temperature, normal pressure, flexible cable and cheap is too optimistic. More than future technology is magic.

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