The company’s Hydrogenie generator, which uses superconductive ceramic and low-cost base metals instead of copper for the machine’s rotor windings, eclipsed expectations and design predictions while running at 43 Kelvin (-230°C) at its full rated load of 1.7MW.

“It’s rather like trying to keep ice cubes frozen on a rotisserie in a very hot oven – except that our rotisserie is rather high tech,” says Martin Ingles, Hydrogenie project manager at GE Power Conversion.

“This