Transmission & distribution | HTS update Moving forward in USA and Germany


MetOx International, which describes itself as a “US leader in high temperature superconducting (HTS) technology,” has announced an investment from Elemental Impact, a “climate-focused investment platform dedicated to scaling technologies with deep community impact.” MetOx says the strategic funding will accelerate the expansion of its Houston, Texas production line and the deployment of its Xeus HTS wire, a “technology poised to revolutionise power delivery and critical energy infrastructure,” MetOx believes.


The Elemental Impact investment comes shortly after MetOx International announced the closing of its $40 million Series B funding round, securing an additional $15 million from a strategic syndicate of investors, including Duquesne Family Office, LLC, Piedmont Capital, Crosscut Ventures, New System Ventures, John Doerr’s Family Office together with Ryan Panchadsaram, among others. In October 2024, MetOx announced it had been selected to negotiate $80 million in funding from the US Department of Energy (DOE) for Project Arch, an advanced HTS wire manufacturing facility in the southeastern United States, a first for the USA. It remains to be seen how Project Arch, to be funded under a Biden-Harris scheme to accelerate clean-energy- related manufacturing in former coal mining communities, fares under the new administration. The MetOx Xeus™ HTS wire is fabricated using advanced MOCVD manufacturing in a continuous


reel-to-reel production process, says MetOx. The superconducting layer is deposited on a thin substrate that is then covered with protective coatings. The HTS wire “has a smooth tape-like structure and is neatly packaged on custom reels for ease of use.”


The wire is designed to work with liquid nitrogen as the cooling medium and can provide around 250x the current-carrying capacity of traditional copper wire, and when used in cables, can increase capacity by 5-10x “with essentially no line loss.”


Liquid nitrogen cooling is also being employed for the 110 kV SuperLink HTS project in Munich, Germany, which at 15 km, promises to be the world’s longest superconducting power cable, should it go ahead to completion. Grid operator Stadtwerke München Infrastruktur, a subsidiary of the utility Stadtwerke München (SWM), has a prototype 110 kV superconducting cable system operating in the Munich power grid. This is essentially a research project (funded on behalf of the German government by Project Management Jülich) which can be seen as the first stage of SuperLink. Project partners include NKT (cable technology provider), Theva (conductor provider), Linde (liquid nitrogen cooling), the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the University of Applied Sciences Südwestfalen.


Located at SWM’s Menzing substation, the superconducting cable system, currently being


  YBCO  Hastelloy


MetOx HTS conductor structure. YBCO = yttrium barium copper oxide (image: MetOx International)


extensively tested to “prove its performance and reliability”, is described as “the first of its kind to contain all the components needed to transmit more than 500 MW over long distances (>10 km) in a lean design at distribution grid level.” The current testing programme is expected to be completed in Q2 2025.


SWM says that if “as is to be expected, the prototype meets the requirements placed on it”, the project will proceed, following tenders, to installation of “the world’s first commercial high- voltage superconductor…once the technical and economic conditions have been met.” The SuperLink plan is to construct an underground 500 MW 110 kV HTS link between Menzing and Sendling employing very compact ducts – enabled by HTS – to minimise construction work.


The use of superconductor technology, with cable cooled to -200ºC, “will deliver substantial power through a narrow corridor in the heart of Munich”, say the project developers.


The initial phase of the SuperLink HTS project, Munich (photo: NKT) 36 | March 2025| www.modernpowersystems.com


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