Superconductor cables could revolutionize the expansion of the transmission network required as a result of the energy transition. The knowledge that electricity is conducted almost without loss at temperatures around absolute zero is due to the Austrian electrical engineer Peter Alexander Klaudy. His research took place primarily at the Technical University of Graz, where he was appointed full professor of fundamentals of electrical engineering and theoretical electrical engineering in 1950 and headed the Institute for Cryogenic Research from 1963 to 1977. With his team he also worked on the experimental investigation of unipolar machines. In 1975, he received a patent for it, and the first prototype was tested at the Arnstein power plant in 1979.
His awards include the Grand Decoration of Honor in Gold of the Province of Styria (1973), the Erwin Schrödinger Prize (1980), the Austrian State Prize for Energy Research (1980) and the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art I. Class (1982).