Energy Department Provides Millions in Funding for Superconducting Tape Tech Manufacturing

The Department of Energy has granted $10 million in funding to three projects focused on superconducting tape technology manufacturing.

The funding will be distributed through the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy under the Novel Superconducting Technologies for Conductors Exploratory Topic. The recipients are working on low-cost, high-temperature superconducting tapes, which could be used in nuclear fusion reactors, wind turbine generators, motor generators, power transmission infrastructure and electric aircraft.

The University of Houston, High Temperature Superconductors Inc., and MetOx Technologies received $2 million, $5 million and $3 million, respectively, for their projects, ARPA-E said Thursday.

The ARPA-E funding is one of several financial support opportunities the Energy Department has been providing in recent weeks.

On the last week of September, the department granted 12 states $22 million to support smart manufacturing programs. The funding was made through the State Manufacturing Leadership Program, which expands small and medium-sized manufacturers’ access to high-performance computing capabilities.

Earlier in the month, DOE awarded seven teams a total of $29 million in funding for fusion and plasma energy research. The teams’ research projects focus on artificial intelligence, machine learning, diagnostic data analysis and other technologies and practices relevant to fusion and plasma sciences.