My elpipe patent application arguably covers any form of electrical transmission system in which the actual current-carrying power line moves like a train inside a pipeline for purposes of installation, repair, and maintenance. This mechanism could be used to put subsea cables into pipeline conduits along the US East Coast for example, which is relevant because subsea cable has higher voltage rating and higher power carrying capacity than underground cable designed for overland transport.
For example, 100 km sections of subsea cable can be unwound off a ship directly into the pipeline conduit. Visualize that the cable is held aloft by small robotic vehicles that carry the cable in to a pipeline conduit; this might look like a long line of robotic army ants carrying the cable in, and then putting it down, but more likely the robotic vehicles will roll on wheels.
The same principle could work for superconducting lines, of which there are two different feasible types. Among the type 1 superconductors, magnesium diboride is especially desirable, as it only requires liquid hydrogen for cooling, rather than liquid helium. It is much easier to manufacture type 1 superconductors in great lengths compared to the type 2 HTS (high temperature superconducting) cables, but both are feasible to install by the elpipe methodology, in very long pieces without splices. In both cases, the cable and cryostat would roll into the pipeline, analogously to the way that a subsea cable would be installed.
This generality makes the elpipe patent valuable for installing currently available technology, even before the segmented polymer-insulated designs that I originally envisioned as elpipes are proven.
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