Nov 18 2008
Zenergy Power plc (AIM:ZEN.L), the specialist manufacturer and developer of commercial applications for high-temperature superconductive (‘HTS’) materials, is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a €475,000 grant by the European Commission in support of its research into the development of low-cost production techniques for 2G HTS wires.
This grant has been awarded to the Group’s German subsidiary, Zenergy Power GmbH, and is part of a €3.55 million project being funded by the European Commission to accelerate the development of a range of ink-jet technologies capable of applying layers of ceramic materials onto the surfaces of metals and other materials. Named EFECTS (Environmental Friendly Electro-ceramics Coating Technology and Synthesis), the funded project is scheduled to last for 36 months and consists of an alliance of eight international partners working on the development of a range of advanced ink jet processes.
The grant from the European Commission comes in recognition of the ongoing work that Zenergy is conducting to develop what it believes will be the industry's lowest-cost manufacturing process for the mass production of 2G HTS wire. As part of its 2G programme Zenergy will use the grant for the development of advanced ink-jet technologies capable of layering ceramic materials onto metal surfaces in a continuous process. The techniques, which are set to place Zenergy at the forefront of delivering the world’s most cost effective process for the production of 2G HTS wire, will adopt cutting-edge ink-jet technologies to ‘paint’ superconducting ceramic materials onto nickel tape through a roll-to-roll process. Furthermore, the inks to be developed will consist of environmentally friendly chemical precursors enhancing process safety and lowering raw material costs.
The Board of directors believe that the continuous nature of the Group’s roll-to-roll process make it ideal for the mass-manufacture of 2G wire in a manner which is both cost effective and high yielding. Moreover, the ‘all-chemical’ approach being developed by Zenergy is the only such process in the world, and is unique in its ability to eliminate the time consuming, labour intensive, batch techniques associated with alternative production methods for making 2G HTS wires.
As previously announced, the Group achieved a key development milestone at the end of last year when it successfully produced a 10m length of 2G HTS wire using its continuous ‘all-chemical’ technique. In addition to the Group’s technical accomplishments with respect to the development of its low-cost manufacturing of HTS wire, the innovative methods developed by Zenergy have been subject to several research grants. These recognise not merely the competence of the Group’s techniques, but also the role that 2G HTS can play both in reducing the costs associated with the production of renewable energy and in the development of highly energy efficient industrial equipment.
Following the successful development of its low-cost manufacturing techniques, it is the Group’s intention to adopt its proprietary 2G HTS wires in the manufacture of lightweight, high-energy efficient offshore wind power generators. As announced in November of last year, both Zenergy and its manufacturing partner, Converteam SAS, enjoyed significant technical achievements in their UK Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform funded project to develop an 8MW direct-drive wind power generator powered by Zenergy’s HTS materials and components. The ongoing success of the work being carried out by Zenergy and Converteam will make available a new generation of high efficiency wind power turbines driven by core HTS wires and components to energy producers throughout the world. It is forecast that using HTS wind powered machines will reduce the cost of producing offshore wind by 25% as a consequence of their increased efficiency and weight savings which can be directly attributed to HTS.