[mensetmanusman]

Need, no, but it would be awesome.

In fact with enough excess energy we could afford to generate enough liquid nitrogen at scale to have superconducting lines to improve efficiency.

[nine_k]

The problem with the current crop of REBCO superconductors is not the cryogenics but the actual ceramic material being brittle. You can't make a wire or a cable, you can only operate with stiff, thin, fragile bars. On top of that. it's not cheap, $100-200 per meter of typical 200kA power band. I suppose copper is like an order of magnitude cheaper just for the cable, ignoring the whole liquid nitrogen piping.

[nullc]

The critical field in high temp superconductors is also much lower, which limits the current you can put through it.