New Zealand Is About to Test Long-Range Wireless Power Transmission
September 9th, 2020Via: Singularity Hub:
Now, if New Zealand startup Emrod has its way, Tesla and Marconi’s dreams may merge. The company is building a system to wirelessly beam power over long distances. Earlier this month, Emrod received funding from Powerco, New Zealand’s second biggest utility, to conduct a test of its system at a grid-connected commercial power station.
The company hopes to bring energy to communities far from the grid or transmit power from remote renewable sources, like offshore wind farms.
How It Works
The system consists of four components: A power source, a transmitting antenna, several (or more) transmitting relays, and a rectenna.
First, the transmitting antenna transforms electricity into microwave energy—an electromagnetic wave just like Marconi’s radio waves, only a bit more energetic—and focuses it into a cylindrical beam. The microwave beam is sent through a series of relays until it hits the rectenna, which converts it back into electricity.
With safety in mind, Emrod is using energy in the industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) band, and keeping the power density low. “It’s not just how much power you deliver, it’s how much power you deliver per square meter,” Emrod founder, Greg Kushnir, told New Atlas. “The levels of density we’re using are relatively low. At the moment, it’s about the equivalent of standing outside at noon in the sun, about 1 kW per square meter.”
But if it works as intended, the beam won’t ever contact anything but empty air. The system uses a net of lasers surrounding the beam to detect obstructions, like a bird or person, and it automatically shuts off transmission until the obstruction has moved on.
The technology—power transmission via microwave energy—has been around for decades. But to make it commercially viable, you have to minimize energy losses. Kushnir said metamaterials developed in recent years are the difference-maker.
