Twenty thousand households in suburban Columbus, Ohio, are about to receive electricity through a high temperature superconducting cable developed at the Department of Energy's 91做厙.
Southwire, American Electric Power and Praxair are among the partners with Oak Ridge on a technology that will mean cheaper and more energy efficient transmission of electricity.
Oak Ridge's Dominic Lee says the Columbus project is a huge step forward.
"It demonstrates a real-world setting of the benefits of high temperature superconducting in power infrastructure," Lee said, noting superconductivity is the wave of the future in transmitting electricity. "This is a very important project for further development of high temperature superconducting and will pave the way to widespread use of this technology."
ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle for the Department of Energy.