[Turing_Machine]

"Practical room temperature superconductors would, in my opinion, change the world as much as the development of semiconductors"

It would be huge, definitely. Even the most obvious application (reducing electric power transmission losses) would be worth billions. According to the Googles, ~4000 TWh generated annually, 6% transmission losses, $.09/kWh gives about $22 billion in annual savings in the United States alone (if I didn't mess up the arithmetic).

[tedsanders]

Not necessarily. Even if we successfully developed a room temperature superconductor, there would still be huge commercial hurdles. Cost, mechanical stability, thermal stability, manufacturability, transportability, sensitivity to heat waves, reliability, critical field (which limits current), density, tensile strength, etc. Also, while $22 billion in annual savings sounds big, the grid is extremely capital intensive, and would take decades and trillions of dollars to upgrade.

[andyidsinga]

really interesting! question I have is: are there other areas with high losses that this could change the game for? For instance, large induction furnaces, or a space elevator?

[Someone]

Tokamak fusion reactors? Portable MRI equipment aka tricorders (probably not the latter. Those cannot work with huge magnetic fields)?

[Gravityloss]

Really high torque and power electric motors and generators in a small package.

That's why the US navy is heavily into this - for submarines and ships.

It'd also make very large offshore wind power plants potentially cheaper.

Electric / hybrid propulsion in aircraft is another. When your thruster is just a light fan, you can place it in the best aerodynamic / least noise generating position, then put the power generator and batteries where there's space and it makes sense for center of gravity. You could have rejuvenation of near city airfields again.

[danarlow]

high current/field applications: magnetic energy storage, magnetic plasma confinement for fusion, particle accelerators, rail guns, magnetic levitation/bearings

extreme sensitivity applications: portable NMR spectrometers/MRI scanners, practical quantum computing, very fast and sensitive microwave processing, easy access to large scale fermion condensates for scientific research

[leni536]

Magnetic levitation for trains.

[eveningcoffee]

Not only saving but also added opportunities. Superconducting wire would make it possible to transport electricity over longer distance.