A giant leap toward space-based solar power - Los Angeles Times To think, I've been still using wires all this time.
fresno eh?... i feel too close.. good thing i'm moving soon. honestly.. i'm happy to see someone working with this technology. good article.
Yes, you can beam energy wirelessly. No, it isn't as efficient as wired, at least for the short distances used on the ground. And if you are concerned about potential EMF-related health problems from power lines, microwave ovens, cell towers, TV transmitters, etc., then wireless power will be a nightmare.
When I read your title I remembered something from years ago where scientists in Europe did something like beaming in Star Trek with data in light... Or something like that, I really didn't remember. Then I saw this article which says they were able 2 years ago to send it 10 times further than the old article I remembered. Star Trek's 'beam me up' device comes a little closer - Steve Connor - NZ Herald News
The bad news: Its gonna cost a few billion dollars. The good news: Its gonna cause all of those Bluetooth headsets to get white hot whenever they are near the beam. I can live with that. :madgrin:
Guys, are you kidding??... if it ever comes to fruition, the oil companies are going to buy up the patent and keep it under wraps for decades.
This would be a tremendous technical challenge to pull off, and keep the public safe. Even if they could technically reduce the public health risk to near-zero, the media will have a field day, resulting in a PR nightmare for the energy company. At any given moment, if you add up the total energy passing through your body in the form of "harmless" man-made microwaves and radio waves, it's probably on the order of a few watts. And an extremely small amount of that energy is actually deposited into your body, resulting in DNA damage. However, people still worry and debate the public health effects of that radiation. (think of the cell phone and brain cancer debate.) Now, to transfer 200 megawatts of energy and focus it into a relatively small area to be collected, and have a foolproof system to absolutely prevent the beam from wandering off into your neighborhood, now that would be an enginering marvel! I work just a few feet away (behind shielding) from powerful nuclear reactors, but I have a complete understanding of their safety systems and the risk involved. No way am I living within a 10 miles of the ground-based receiver for a space-based power generator without more information. Being scientifically-minded, I'm sure I can be convinced of the risk and change my mind, but the average Joe probably won't understand, which will feed the media frenzy.
Why do something simple, when there is very difficult and risky way of doing it? Having a meteor or space junk hit a power plant is miniscule on the planet. It's serious business for something in space. How long does this thing last? Another consideration is radio astronomy may complain bitterly.
Seriously. Why must these things be in space. We have plenty of roofs and desert land to place these grids.
