Arcturus could halve the grid’s electrical losses using its nano-infused copper

The world uses a lot of copper, but thanks to the energy transition and data centers, it’ll need a lot more. Between now and 2050, we’ll have to produce more copper than has been mined throughout all of human history, according to one study. A lot of that copper ends up in the electrical grid, which in the U.S. is showing its age . “We’re hitting this inflection point of AI and the electrification of nearly every industry, and it’s creating this point where we have overburdened and overstressed the energy grid,” Amir Mashal, founder and CEO of Arcturus , told TechCrunch. One option is to throw more copper at the problem, but Mashal said his startup, which has been operating in stealth, offers an alternative. Arcturus can reduce the amount of energy that electrical conductors lose to heat by infusing carbon nanomaterials into copper and aluminum using lasers. Replacing traditional copper with Arcturus’s material would allow the same size power lines to carry more electricity. In practical terms, that could cut losses on the electrical grid in half, which would immediately unlock around 3% more electricity on average and up to 10% more during the most congested times, when the grid arguably needs it most. At the low end, that’s about a year’s worth of demand growth in the U.S. “Copper loses conductivity as it heats up, so the hotter it gets, the more energy it wastes as heat,” Mashal said. …