Atlas City Project

Superconducting cables can prevent rolling blackouts, lose no energy, and much more.

www.popsci.com/node/43189
www.ornl.gov/sci/htsc/documents/releases/swfieldtest.htm
www.oakridger.com/localnews/x1416197094/Oak-Ridge-lab-tests-super-power-cables-for-NYC

Even if there were enough of those rare minerals available to re-do the entire electric grid with them, you still waste a whole lot of power on the cooling mechanisms... probably more than you save.

Not exactly the best solution there could be...

LP,
Jure

Possibly not for replacing current infrastructure, but for building new it could be useful. The materials that may be expensive now could possibly be manufactured quite cheaply in the near future due to upcoming technologies such as nano tech. This is one video I found quite interesting on a similar topic.

www.ted.com/talks/view/lang/en//id/1249