Recent Development of MgB2-Based Large Scale Applications

In the past two years since the last ASC 2004 conference, a substantial improvement was made in the manufacture and use of Magnesium Diboride conductors. Many km of conductors were already produced throughout the world and it is now possible to deeply think about a convenient industrial production of this conductor, as it is already possible to purchase it in reasonable lengths on the free market. This result was obtained just a few years after its discovery in 2001, well in advance whether compared with the relatively slow breakthrough of HTS conductors in industrial applications. These remarkable lengths of conductor were also wound in coils and their performance continuously improved in the past years. Recently, the possibility to realize superconducting joints was also demonstrated. Here we present an overview of the recent results and a perspective for the future development of this "new" superconductor.