AMSC and BASF Corporation/BASF GmbH are making a partnership to develop an advanced low cost manufacturing process for second generation high temperature superconductor wire.
A press release said that the two companies have agreed to “a royalty-bearing, non-exclusive license under which AMSC will provide BASF a specified portion of AMSC’s second generation (2G) high temperature superconductor (HTS) wire manufacturing technology.” The agreement seeks to take advantage of AMSC’s manufacturing know-how for its Amperium® superconductor wire and BASF’s chemical solution deposition production technology. AMSC, it said, “intends to continue its focus on HTS system-based solutions, such as its Resilient Electric Grid and Ship Protection Systems and to provide wire for those solutions as well as to AMSC’s strategic partners.”
“BASF is committed to produce and commercialize HTS wire for standard applications,” said Dr. Guido Voit, managing director of BASF New Business GmbH. “We expect to utilize our existing relationships to engage large, global organizations in the energy segment to support adoption and development of HTS applications. By combining BASF’s strength, experience and global reach with AMSC’s manufacturing know how, we believe we can accelerate the path to commercialize applications using HTS wire.”
AMSC President and CEO Daniel McGahn observed that this agreement this relationship validates his company’s technology and patent position. “We will potentially have two ways to source wire for superconductor applications. BASF’s manufacturing approach, which leverages our technology, is an attempt to dramatically change the economics of superconductors.”
The parties expect these agreements to result in the development of a potentially low cost manufacturing process at BASF and to enable AMSC to focus resources on driving down the total system cost, the release said. If the development is complete and successful, AMSC may utilize wire produced by this advanced manufacturing process for its systems business, it noted.
