Tłumaczenie symultaniczne na j. polski
Already hundred years ago, Kammerlingh Onnes, who had discovered this fascinating phenomenon, developed ambitious plans how to realize large scale technical applications. His dreams were to revolutionize the way of transporting energy, without any losses or to create powerful magnets with high electrical currents. But the fundamental materials properties soon forced him to abandon these ideas. Low transition temperatures, low critical currents and magnetic fields turned out to be insurmountable obstacles. Thus, for decades superconductivity remained a purely scientific curiosity, till in the late 70ies new intermetallic superconductors provided the possibility to develop powerful magnets for solid state research and medical instruments. Since low transition temperatures still could not be overcome despite decades of research, a paradigm shift in the strategy for the search for new materials with higher transition temperatures was worth a try. An unconventional approach in the search involving oxides instead of metals led to the discovery of high Tc superconductivity in a new class of materials and gave the field a new impact. Three decades of research and development on the new Cu-oxide based superconductors finally created the basis for a superconductor industry. Wires carrying high currents and superconducting cables finally enable the transport of energy without resistance as shown in many pilot projects. Numerous examples of superconducting machinery exist, which demonstrate their economic value through an efficient generation and use of electrical energy and at the same time allow for a significant reduction of resources. All projects demonstrate the potential of a growing superconductor technology and its relevance, when it comes to the question of how to address environmental issues of the 21st century and beyond.