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* [41]Topics

New Zealand Is About to Test Long-Range Wireless Power Transmission

By
[42]Jason Dorrier
-
Aug 30, 2020
24,389

A [43]famous image of inventor Nikola Tesla shows him casually sitting
on a chair, legs crossed, taking notes—oblivious to the profusion of
artificial lightning rending the air meters away. By then, Tesla and
raw electricity were like an old married couple.

The experiments, conducted in Colorado, led to one of Tesla’s most
audacious proposals: To power the world without wires. He [44]made
headlines with plans for a “world wireless system,” and won funding
from JP Morgan to build the first of several huge transmission towers.

But Tesla’s wireless energy dream died soon after. JP Morgan canceled
additional funding. The tower was demolished. Later scientists were
skeptical Tesla’s plans (which were a bit vague) would have worked.

Meanwhile, Tesla’s peer Guglielmo Marconi pursued a parallel dream with
far greater success: The wireless transmission of information on radio
waves. Today’s world is, of course, awash in wireless information.

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,[45] 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, [46]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.

The company uses metamaterials to more efficiently convert the
microwave beam back into electricity. The relays, which are like
“lenses” extending the beam beyond line-of-sight by refocusing it, are
nearly lossless. According to Kushnir, most of losses happen at the
other end, where electricity is converted into microwave energy.
Overall, he said the system’s efficiency is around 70%, which is short
of copper wires but economically viable in some areas. And it’s those
areas the company’s aiming for.

“…we don’t foresee in the near future a situation where we could say
all copper wire can be replaced by wireless,” Kushnir said.
“Inherently, it’ll have lower efficiency levels. It’s not about
replacing the whole infrastructure but augmenting it in places where it
makes sense.”

A Real-World Test

The company’s prototype can currently send a few watts of energy over a
distance of about 130 feet. For the Powerco project, they’re working on
a larger version capable of beaming a few kilowatts. The plan is to
deliver the new system to Powerco in October, test it in the lab for a
few months, and then, if all goes to plan, try it out in the field. The
tests will aim to validate how much power the system can transmit over
what distance.

Though the current model is modest, Kushnir says it should scale.

“We can use the exact same technology to transmit 100 times more power
over much longer distances,” he [47]said in a press release. “Wireless
systems using Emrod technology can transmit any amount of power current
wired solutions transmit.”

Ray Simpkin, Emrod’s chief scientific officer, [48]told IEEE Spectrum
that the company is also looking into whether they could beam power
across 30 kilometers of water from the New Zealand mainland to Stewart
Island. He said the system could cost as little as 60 percent of an
undersea cable.

Ultimately, the technology may help power rural areas or transmit
energy from offshore wind farms, both cases where it’s expensive to
build physical infrastructure to tap or feed the grid. In other cases,
say in national parks, a mode of wireless transmission could have less
impact on the environment and require less maintenance. Or it might be
used to provide power after natural disasters in which physical
infrastructure has been damaged.

It’s not Tesla’s “world wireless system,” but it just might make
long-distance wireless power a commercial reality in the
not-too-distant future.

Image source: [49]Killian Eon / [50]Pexels

* TAGS
* [51]Energy

[52]Jason Dorrier
[53]Jason Dorrier
Jason is managing editor of Singularity Hub. He did research and wrote
about finance and economics before moving on to science, technology,
and the future. He is curious about pretty much everything, and sad
he'll only ever know a tiny fraction of it all.
[54]Learn More

[55]

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