Wireless Power Transmission

New Zealand company Emrod says it's got the technology to enable efficient wireless energy transfer from orbit. It's proposing a global wireless energy matrix, which would instantly beam renewable energy via satellite between any two points on Earth.

Korean engineers have demonstrated a new system that uses infrared lasers to beam power over distances as far as 100 ft (30 m), which could eventually lead to technology that automatically charges your phone as soon as you walk into a room.

In what it describes as the most significant demonstration of its kind in half a century, the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) beamed 1.6 kW of power over a kilometer (3,280 ft) using a microwave beam at the US Army Research Field in Maryland.

Wireless power transmission has potential, but range is a major hurdle. In a new proof-of-concept, Ericsson and PowerLight Technologies demonstrated a technique called optical beaming, using a laser to transmit power to a portable 5G base station.

We've already seen wirelessly powered implants that are activated by an external transmitter. Taking things a step further, scientists are now able to activate multiple implants sequentially, still using just one transmitting device.

Usually when we talk about "cutting the cord," it means cancelling cable TV. But Russian startup Reasonance has bigger plans for TV cord cutting, showing a prototype that leaves the electrical cord behind in favor of wireless power.

Yesterday we covered the news that New Zealand's second-largest electricity distributor has signed a deal with startup Emrod to trial long-range wireless power transmission. Today we follow up with an interview with Emrod's founder, Greg Kushnir.

A New Zealand-based startup has developed a method of safely and wirelessly transmitting electric power across long distances without the use of copper wire, and is working on implementing it with the country's second-largest power distributor.