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The Conversation
Science
Pegor Aynajian, Associate Professor of Physics, Binghamton University, State University of New York

Physicists hunt for room-temperature superconductors that could revolutionize the world's energy system

Wind turbines and solar panels in Southern California. 4kodiak/E+ via Getty Images

Waste heat is all around you. On a small scale, if your phone or laptop feels warm, that’s because some of the energy powering the device is being transformed into unwanted heat.

On a larger scale, electric grids, such as high power lines, lose over 5% of their energy in the process of transmission. In an electric power industry that generated more than US$400 billion in 2018, that’s a tremendous amount of wasted money.

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