Award Name: Stage 2 of the Conductivity-enhanced materials for Affordable Breakthrough Leapfrog Electric and thermal applications (CABLE) Conductor Manufacturing Prize Selections

Award Amount: $1.4 Million and $700,000 in vouchers

Description

The Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO) announced the winners for Stage 2 of the Conductivity-enhanced materials for Affordable, Breakthrough Leapfrog Electric and thermal applications (CABLE) Conductor Manufacturing Prize. This three-stage competition is awarding up to $4.5 million to accelerate the development of affordable, manufacturable materials that conduct electricity more efficiently to outfit America’s manufacturing and transportation infrastructures, in advancement of the clean energy economy. 

In Stage 1 of the CABLE Prize, teams submitted breakthrough concepts for more conductive materials that could be used for both electrical and thermal energy applications. Stage 2 required teams to produce a sample of their material for evaluation by CABLE Prize-approved testing labs.

Projects

NUMBER OF STAGE 2 WINNERS: 7
NUMBER OF STATES CONTAINING SELECTED PROJECTS: 6
FEDERAL FUNDING AMOUNT: $1.4 Million

The Super Cool Conductor is made using a high-tech deposition and roll-to-roll process to create a superconductor film on a tape. This conductor successfully competed in the Copper contest and could replace copper in motors, vehicle cables and generators and its magnetic properties also make it uniquely well suited to applications such as compact fusion power plants.

The Graphene Infused Copper Made by the Flash Method is made with a low-cost manufacturing process that can be completed in about 30 seconds, without the need for a furnace.

The Ultra-High Strength/Highly Conductive Al Alloys could replace aluminum conductor steel-reinforced (ACSR) cables used in overhead transmission lines with an aluminum wire alloy that that has higher conductivity than ASCR and requires no steel because of its high tensile strength.

The Copper-Graphene Ultra Wire from Team CoGrUW (MetalKraft Technologies) is made with a solid-phase process planned to be scaled to high-volume production that produces a wire that is more conductive than conventional copper wire.

The Conductivity-Enhanced Nanocarbon Copper Composites are made by first mixing copper with trace amounts of additives before combining it with graphene in a solid phase.

A Sapient Choice of Cables for Wind Energy superconductor is made from very low cost materials in a scalable process. Because of the superconductor’s compact size, light weight and magnetic properties it could replace rare earth magnets in wind turbines lowering costs and/or reducing tower size/weight.

The Advanced Conductor with Conductive Strength Member substitutes conductive carbon nanotube (CNT) fibers for A C S Rs steel reinforcement and many other manufacturing innovations to very thoroughly BEAT ACSR for transmission lines.

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