>> In a world of finite energy resources, the elimination of any inefficiencies can benefit everyone: energy providers, distributors, and consumers at all levels
Furthermore, a super-conducting belt around the Earth would greatly mitigate solar and wind energy's Achilles heel; intermittency.
Renewable power, generated elsewhere, could become accessible in the calm of a windless night. Grid storage? Thanks, no need.
This is actually the plot behind Larry Niven's Ringworld! A gigantic civilization has created a Ringworld (a rotating wheel artificial world), until a superconducting plague (https://news.larryniven.net/concordance/main.asp?alpha=S#sup...) destroys the material that enables room-temperature superconductivity, thus reducing the entire Ringworld to the dark ages...
Presumably the relay protection would trip the breaker for over current.
Essentially they would function like HVDC cables, and we already operate plenty of those.
Furthermore, a super-conducting belt around the Earth would greatly mitigate solar and wind energy's Achilles heel; intermittency.
Renewable power, generated elsewhere, could become accessible in the calm of a windless night. Grid storage? Thanks, no need.