Smart Grid Will Spur Growth In Advanced Materials Demand

In a report from analyst firm NanoMarkets, smart grid infrastructure needs will generate sizeable demand for advanced materials suppliers spanning from new compound semiconductors to the latest nanomaterials. NanoMarkets' new report, titled “Opportunities for New Materials and Devices in the Smart Grid: 2010 to 2017,” also suggests that new smart grid infrastructure products will present a $12 billion income opportunity for suppliers of components, wires, cables, storage devices and insulators.

 

The report further explores the arenas where the spurt in demand will be experienced. Composite materials will be used in the smart grid that will enable it to transmit larger currents and voltages than at present. The difference is already being felt in the form of composite cabling that offer two to four times the capacity of traditional transmission cabling.

 

Within a few years nanocomposite dielectrics will start being used as fillers in grid insulators which will bring about dramatic enhancements in voltage endurance, breakdown strength, component size, and aging characteristics. These “nano-dielectrics” will account for more than $500 million in revenues by 2017. The use of Silicon Carbide over silicon in grid power electronics devices and Gallium Nitride, Zinc Oxide and industrial diamond may also occur in the future.

 

Electricity grids embedded with devices built using these materials will have higher capacity and require lesser switching devices; switching losses will reduce to half of that for equivalent silicon devices. By 2017, NanoMarkets projects that over $400 million in non-silicon power electronics devices will be used for grid infrastructure.

 

About $350 million will be expended on superconducting cables and fault current limiting devices for the smart grid by 2017. In the beginning superconductive cabling will be utilized for short lengths in strategic areas such as grid interconnects, but imminent price reductions will finally drive the adoption of long-haul transmission systems by superconductors. Installing superconductors in smart grid cabling will cut down on line losses, guarantee stable voltage, and increase current carrying capacities. Only nanotubes wires guarantee superior conductivity than superconductors but nanotube wire deployment will not be widely used for many years to come.

 

NanoMarkets' new report is a detailed analysis and forecast of smart grid components which use advanced materials. This report has projections of these components in quantity and value parameters for the next eight years and it determines key materials that will lead to a new level of performance in the relay and distribution of electricity.