superconductor

A superconductor is a conductor with an extremely low resistance. The use of superconductors is usually limited to situations where extremely high current densities need to be achieved, such as in the magnet windings of a particle accelerator.

Superconductance was discovered by the dutch scientist Heike Kamerling Onnes, in 1911. At very low temperatures (near the 'absolute zero point'), the regular resistance to electrical conductance was measured to vanish. After that the race was on to find 'high temperature' super conducting elements. Most superconductors today are based on the element 'bismuth', and conduct somwhere around 116 Kelvin (or -157 degrees celsius !). The holy grail, room temperature superconductivity, if it ever will be discovered will change the world as we know it quite a bit.

One of the uses of superconductors in the alternative energy field is ''grid stabilization' in a windfarm.