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Wireless electricitity distribution network
is that reality or fiction? saw something on Youtube that seems to be effectively a potential wireless electricity project.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Andrew Dreasler on
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"If it's on YouTube it must be true." (Sorry for the sarcasm, but with the peer review system at YouTube, which is none, any demonstrations shown there are likely to be manipulated to achieve the desired result. They're good for conversation starters, as we're doing here, but they can't be called 'proof' in any sense of the word.)
As far as feasibility goes, the short answer is "Yea and no." Current technology allows for RFID tags to have no internal power supply, drawing the energy needed to run from the signal energy sent by the reader. This can work ad a decent range such as the I-Pass/E-Z Pass systems, where a reader mounted high enough to allow a semi to pass under (15'+) can still read the bumper-mounted ID tag on a ground-hugging sports car, a distance of 13-14 feet, with the tag passing by at nearly a hundred miles an hour. (You know there's at least two or three sports car drivers who go flying down the tollways that fast.)
RFID systems, however, are very low power at the tag end, running off of millivolts at most, and with current requirements approaching zero. A full 'broadcast power' system has not been explored since Tesla's experiments were shut down and Wardenclyffe Tower was dismantled. It is possible to use 'beamed power,' creating a point to point system to transmit power between towers without wires, by using high-power microwave systems, or even placing a satellite in geosynchronous orbit to collect solar energy and beam it to a receiving dish on the surface, but problems with power attenuation over distance and fears over a misaligned transmitter 'cooking' innocent bystanders have left these technologies primarily in the realm of science fiction.
I would love to hear that my understanding is wrong, and that broadcast power is economically feasible, however, even if I am mistaken, I doubt that anyone who could tell me so currently aren't at liberty to speak up about it.
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Permalink Reply by Chase Williams on
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Wireless electricity has been around for sometime now. Whether it is short distance transmission (Induced Coupling - Transformer Action), or long distance (Laser Transmission). There are many other forms of transmission that have been tested. If you have any questions about it give me a shout.
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In response to Andrew, short range is used quite commonly, not just for RFID tags, but for pacemakers, transformers, and there are also companies now marketing wireless charging for personal electronics. As for magnitude, wrt short range, loss and biological "hazards" really are not an issue. However, long range, depending on the method used for transmission, losses are the primary concern. In the 70's NASA effectively transmitted a large amount of power to a satellite array approximately a mile away (If I remember correctly), efficiency was in the 75% range (which really is not that bad if you consider internal combustion engines, but I suppose it depends on what you are comparing it to), the study was prepared to explore possibilities of supplying power to the ISS (international space station).
Anyway, without going in to any specifics, wireless power transmission is something that is completely feasible, and has been successfully tested in many areas. Biological harm is only a medium specific issue. And btw, Tesla did perform similar experiments successfully, he was not "shut down" before his experiments were performed. It is true that Tesla's tower was taken down some time after he left that lab, and he did run out of funding for the tower because his primary investor found interest somewhere else. Europe I believe, with the first AC transmission lines. But Tesla performed these WPT (wireless power transmission) experiments many times before with success on much smaller scales.
Chase Williams said:Wireless electricity has been around for sometime now. Whether it is short distance transmission (Induced Coupling - Transformer Action), or long distance (Laser Transmission). There are many other forms of transmission that have been tested. If you have any questions about it give me a shout.
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Permalink Reply by Brian Kiley on
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Take a look at this link http://www.powerpulse.net/story.php?storyID=20650.
Wireless lighting is being developed and will be on the market before to long. When you set a light fixture in a grid the fixture will be powered without running any wires. The grid will provide a DC voltage to power the fixture.
We have been working with 2 companies that provide wirless controls for lighting systems at the present time. The lighting is controled with montions sensors along with a PC for individual control.
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Is "entanglement" as in quantum mechanics, is that looking any promising in the near future in this area?
Shoundnt our processors have the ability to be equiped with these most beautiful atoms?
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Permalink Reply by Jon Connell on
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I don't think any lighting companies are working on wireless delivery energy at this time - although I do happen to know that it is conceptually in development in labs in several places.
The "wireless" lighting technology that Brian Kiley refers to in the link is in fact a low voltage dc power distribution system which very much uses conductors to deliver power. The control is apparently without wires in some incarnations but there is a solid electro-mechanical linkage between the power source and the load in all cases as far as I know.
The technology in the link seeks to remove all the power conversion losses involved in converting between ac line voltage and low voltage (LED-friendly) power. Removing the distributed ac/dc conversion step can garner 10-20% improvement in lighting efficiency. A single dc source delivering power via wires - or something like them - and using state of the art dc:dc conversion - which is usually more efficient than the best ac:dc conversion or in some cases, no conversion at all after dc hits the space in question. My high school science lab was wired for several flavors of dc and ac power at the bench - same principal.
Ironically, if we had all listened to Edison instead of Westinghouse we would have dc in our buildings now - but had Westinghouse stuck with Tesla we may well have wireless power today instead. We will probably see dc distribution in commercial spaces legislated in the next decade. I doubt it will be practical in rural areas until our great grandchildren are writing questions about quantum / hole-pair power distribution in this group in the early 22nd century. (It arrives where you want it you know...)
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Permalink Reply by Macen Shinsato on
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Here is the URL to a wireless power Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfQCmerO1ss
Its an interesting concept especially for devices that need to be environmentally sealed like the light up ball in the video.
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Permalink Reply by Leslie Langnau on
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You might want to check out a news item we published in the April issue of Design World magazine, page 23. Title is Battery free operation of sensor nodes. You can search our website for this item using that headline. It talks about taking sensor node chips thermal differential and using that to power wireless sensors.
Best,
Leslie Langnau
Managing Editor,
Design World magazine
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