Characterization of Commercial MgB2Conductors for Magnet Application in SMES

Nowadays, long lengths of MgB2conductors on the kilometer scale fabricated by the powder-in-tube process are commercially available. Due to its relatively low cost, high critical current density Jc, low anisotropy, and a critical temperature of about 40 K, MgB2may be attractive for several applications. Examples of these are as MgB2coils for superconductor transformers, as induction heaters, or as MRI magnets. MgB2conductors also promise to be a usable option for superconducting coils in wind generators or as a superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) for the recently proposed LIQHYSMES approach. LIQHYSMES as a new hybrid energy concept combines the use of LIQuid HYdrogen as the primary high-density energy carrier with SMES for fast and efficient buffering. In this paper, we present the physical properties of MgB2wires tested in several experimental configurations of a projected MgB2-based solenoid of a small LIQHYSMES test setup.