LONDON, April 25 /PRNewswire/ -- As announced on March 26th, Zenergy Power plc (AIM: ZEN.L), the specialist manufacturer and developer of commercial applications for high-temperature superconductive (HTS) materials, signed a contract to evaluate its fault current limiter technology for use in Project HYDRA, which is aimed at protecting the electric grid of New York City.
With respect to Project HYDRA, funded in part by The Department of Homeland Security ('DHS'), Zenergy is acting as a subcontractor to American Superconductor , a leading energy technologies company, which is the prime contractor and manager of Project HYDRA.
Project HYDRA, which began in May 2007, focuses on the development and deployment of American Superconductor's Secure Super Grids(TM) technology in the power delivery network in Manhattan operated by Consolidated Edison Company of New York Inc. , the largest investor-owned energy company in the U.S. The total project cost is $39 million.
Zenergy was selected by American Superconductor to perform a technical analysis of Zenergy's FCL technology for possible utilization in Project HYDRA.
Zenergy's proprietary stand-alone FCL device is the sole superconductor-based device chosen for the technical study. The FCL device, if selected to advance to the demonstration phase, will utilize first generation superconductor wire.
About Zenergy Power plc
Zenergy Power plc is a global specialist manufacturer and developer of commercial applications for superconductive materials. Comprising three operating subsidiaries located in Germany, USA and Australia, Zenergy is highly focussed on the commercialisation of a number of energy efficient applications to be adopted in renewable energy power generation, energy distribution and large scale, energy intensive industrial processes and achieved the world's first commercial sale of an industrial scale HTS device in September 2007.
About superconductivity
Superconductive materials are capable of conducting electricity without any resistance and were first discovered in 1911 in what was to prove to be one of the most significant scientific breakthroughs of the 20th century. The global HTS market is substantial and growing, with a number of market studies projecting multi-billion dollar markets for the application of HTS materials and products. The proliferation of the use of superconductor materials is largely being driven by the following key factors:
(a) HTS materials are highly complementary to energy efficient technologies as a substitute for copper (b) HTS wires have power densities of over 100x that of copper (c) Current developments are leading to substantially reduced costs in the production of HTS wires and are targeting to be cheaper than copper over the next few years. (d) HTS applications deliver exceptional energy efficiencies and thus reduced power consumption and running costs (e) HTS technology is set to play a significant role in reducing CO2 emissions in line with international targets (f) HTS applications are capable of delivering vastly increased levels of power with increased reliability and reduced material usage
