Superfast DC Circuit Breaker Is the Future

The Energy Department’s ARPA-E recently awarded a team of engineers at GE Research $5.8 million to develop a superfast medium-voltage DC (MVDC) circuit breaker. The GE engineers plan to use gas-plasma technology to build a superfast switch.

Official Press Release GE Renewable Energy:

Switch It Up: Superfast DC Circuit Breaker Could Unlock Renewables’ Full Potential

Wind Industry Profile of

America’s Great Plains are a windy place. In the 1930s, vast clouds of dust ruined crops and forced thousands to migrate off their farms, inspiring John Steinbeck’s novel “The Grapes of Wrath.” That same persistent and powerful wind is now inspiring a boom in wind turbine farms.

Two Texas sites — Roscoe and Horse Hollow — each produce more than 700 megawatts of electrical power, as much as a combined-cycle power plant, and more wind farms are in the offing. But to unlock the wind’s bounty in full, engineers still need to crack a few problems. One of the largest conundrums involves shipping electricity efficiently and with minimal impact over long distances — from, say, empty prairie into the heart of densely populated cities . A leading... ... More: Official Press Release GE Renewable Energy