Development of Peltier Current Lead for DC cable

The widespread expectation is that superconducting technologies will be one of the effective technologies to decrease energy loss and improve efficiency in energy grids. Especially, in recent circumstances, applications connecting with renewable energy receive attention. Yamaguchi et al successfully developed 200 m-class superconducting direct current transmission and distribution system (CASER-2) in Chubu University and carried out the demonstration of this system. On this demonstration, "Peltier Current Lead (PCL)" was employed, wherein Peltier device was used for the purpose of pumping up the heat through the down-leads, It was observed that PCL reduced heat leak into cryostat as compared to usual Cu current leads on this demonstration, but some issues to be solved remained, such as heat-cycle performance etc.. In this paper, we designed a prototype PCL for the purpose of improvement of the mechanical strength and the durability for the heat cycle, and evaluated the performance. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of ISS Program Committee.