# Superconducting magnetic storage: Impact and additionality

A research curiosity, not yet a climate tool

Source page: https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_smes/sg-impact/

What this tab covers The impact and additionality lens: what it displaces on the grid, who gains and who bears the burden along the supply chain, and what happens at end of life.

SMES does not shift renewable energy in time and has little direct decarbonisation impact; for an impact fund it is a research watch item rather than an investable storage class.

#### Grid decarbonisation versus fossil displacement
Unfavourable

With seconds of storage, SMES displaces no meaningful fossil generation. It can stabilise weak grids and so help integrate renewables, but the same service is now supplied more cheaply by batteries, supercapacitors and grid-forming inverters. Built high-temperature units are in the 1 to 2.5 MJ class (2004 to 2011); recent work is mostly designs, such as a 2023 US national laboratory study of a 45 MJ SMES to drive a pulsed research magnet, and our search found no larger grid project since.^[1](https://erf-aisbl.eu/wp-content/uploads/6-SMES-Superconducting-Magnetic-Energy-Storage-present-status-future-Pascal-Tixador.pdf)^[9](https://public.magnet.fsu.edu/AToth/NSF%20publication%20access/2023/09%20Newly%20Entered%20Pubs%20September%202023/2023%20Cited/2023_Superconducting%20Magnetic%20Energy%20Storage.pdf)
 HTS demonstrators (Korea 2011, Japan 2004) 2.5 MJ; 1 MJ / 1 MVA^[1](https://erf-aisbl.eu/wp-content/uploads/6-SMES-Superconducting-Magnetic-Energy-Storage-present-status-future-Pascal-Tixador.pdf) Recent design study (NHMFL, 2023) 45 MJ, for pulsed magnet supply (design only)^[9](https://public.magnet.fsu.edu/AToth/NSF%20publication%20access/2023/09%20Newly%20Entered%20Pubs%20September%202023/2023%20Cited/2023_Superconducting%20Magnetic%20Energy%20Storage.pdf)

#### Just transition and local community impact
Mixed

Supply chains are specialised and concentrated: superconducting tape is made by a few firms, YBCO relies on rare-earth elements, and helium comes from a few gas-producing states. Jobs are high-skill and few. Communities near sites face little impact beyond magnetic-field exclusion zones.^[5](https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2026/mcs2026-helium.pdf)^[8](https://fens.sabanciuniv.edu/sites/fens.sabanciuniv.edu/files/2024-03/the-prospects-of-high-t-superconductors.pdf)

#### Circular economy and end of life
Mixed

Coils are copper, niobium alloys or coated tapes on metal substrates, plus steel structure, so metals can be recovered, and helium can be captured and reused if systems are designed for it. No recycling statistics exist because there are almost no retired units.^[2](https://stax.strath.ac.uk/downloads/m326m222d)

#### Sources

1. [SMES (Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage): present status and future (P. Tixador, Grenoble INP / CNRS) (historical, 2011)](https://erf-aisbl.eu/wp-content/uploads/6-SMES-Superconducting-Magnetic-Energy-Storage-present-status-future-Pascal-Tixador.pdf) Energy Research Forum (ERF), conference presentation, Lund, 2011
2. [Review of applications of superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) to power systems (M. Fadly, MPhil thesis; secondary source)](https://stax.strath.ac.uk/downloads/m326m222d) University of Strathclyde, 2021
3. [Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Helium](https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2026/mcs2026-helium.pdf) US Geological Survey, 2026
4. [The prospects of high-temperature superconductors (Molodyk and Larbalestier), Science vol. 380, pp. 1220-1222](https://fens.sabanciuniv.edu/sites/fens.sabanciuniv.edu/files/2024-03/the-prospects-of-high-t-superconductors.pdf) Science (AAAS), 2023
5. [Superconducting magnetic energy storage for pulsed power magnet applications (Bhardwaj et al.), IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity vol. 33 no. 5, 5700306](https://public.magnet.fsu.edu/AToth/NSF%20publication%20access/2023/09%20Newly%20Entered%20Pubs%20September%202023/2023%20Cited/2023_Superconducting%20Magnetic%20Energy%20Storage.pdf) IEEE / National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, 2023

## Other sections

- [Summary](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_smes/index.md)
- [Overview](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_smes/overview/index.md)
- [Correlation](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_smes/correlation/index.md)
- [Science and technology](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_smes/sg-sci/index.md)
- [Engineering and performance](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_smes/sg-eng/index.md)
- [Economics](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_smes/sg-econ/index.md)
- [What to track](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_smes/tracking/index.md)
- [Relationships](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_smes/links/index.md)