With everything going wireless, what about wireless power transmission too?
This is probably one of my favorite and most complicated topics to cover. As most of us know, the wireless transmission of electric power using traditional electromagnetic transverse waves is not practical. Ignoring the effects of absorption and scattering, the power density of electromagnetic waves in free space spread out such that the power density decrease is inversely proportional to the square of the distance… meaning that it reduces very quickly because it spreads out so quickly (see the previous blog on free space loss). It takes a really powerful transmitter to transfer a lot of power. Fortunately, we have one of these extremely powerful wireless transmitters of raw transverse electromagnetic waves. In conventional terms, we earthlings call it the Sun. And our receiver? Well some of the energy is scattered by the atmosphere and some is absorbed - resulting in a warming of the earth and other energy transfer creates organic matter like plants and fossil fuels. Of course, the best example of a real time “receiver” of this power is a photovoltaic cell or solar panel. Unfortunately, lack of conversion efficiency (see the solar power blog), and all of the losses in the system make reproducing a smaller version of this type of system for use here on earth to distribute power from a power plant to our homes not very practical - pretty depressing indeed. Those pesky laws of physics, refined by the minds of Maxwell and Hertz have gotten in the way of wireless power transmission.Fortunately, one of my favorite inventors of the late 19th and early 20th century figured out another way, using those same laws of physics. Unfortunately, much of his work in the area of wireless power transmission wasn’t really appreciated until 50+ years after his death. I’m talking about the inventor of our alternating current power distribution system- still in use today worldwide and the arch-enemy of Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla. For those of you that don’t remember Tesla, he was born in the Austria-Hungary Empire in 1856 and became a great engineer and inventor. Some of his inventions of note were the transformer, the AC induction motor, and tuned circuits which are the foundation of radio transmission later perfected by Marconi. Tesla himself had over 700 patents. He came to the United States to get a job working for Thomas Edison. He and Edison had a falling out because he felt the only efficient way to transmit electricity over power lines was Alternating Current or AC, while Edison was stuck in the world of Direct Current or DC. As we know, Tesla was right and we are lucky that a wealthy guy named Westinghouse was willing to invest in Tesla’s AC system. He was thus responsible for the first hydroelectric generator at Niagra Falls. The rest is of course history.
Well, later in his career, Tesla became obsessed with the notion of wireless power transmission. While his AC transmission system worked very well, he thought there should be even a better way. At one point in 1900, his wireless power transmission system was able to light 200 lamps from a distance of around 25 miles. Unfortunately, the notion of free wireless power transmission didn’t seem to good for business and J. Pierpont Morgan withdrew funding of Tesla’s Wardenclyffe Laboratory because wireless power meant that there would be “no place to put the meter.” Unfortunately for Tesla, because his theories seemed to violate the current interpretation of electromagnetics and a lack of funding to continue his work, many scientists viewed him as an eccentric that had gone beyond his prime.
Of course, I believe that Tesla’s work and achievements are well recognized and appreciated today and as you will find, all the modern work on wireless power transmission has its roots in Tesla’s work. So what is this modern work and when can we have it? I’ll begin discussing that in the next blog. At 600 words per blog, it may take a few……
Postal James commented:
Tesla was not cheated out of his royalties. At the time Westinghouse was due to make a huge royalty payment to Tesla. Westinghouse was very much short of cash with the AC/DC power wars with Edison power at the time.
Tesla volunteered to sign away his royalties back to Westinghouse at the time.
It is still no excuse for Tesla having to live in complete poverty like that.
Westinghouse should have compensated Tesla when they got back on their feet.
There were many political forces against Tesla, Edison was most notable, power utilities companies and various agencies of the government whom did not understand the risk and were just generally afraid of his work.
The docterine at the time and is still present today for those in power that do not understand the technology, assume it is evil.
Edison did not understand calculus beyond the fact that it existed, therefore AC power was evil.
donee commented:
Tesla's wireless transmission experiments were a case of the "unknown risk of the new". Tesla died of cancer. There is a famous picture of Tesla sitting in a room with a high frequcny Tesla coil creating dancing sparks through out. As it was high frequency, the current did not penetrate his body, and he was not killed. He knew this physics very well and knew it was safe from electrocution in that room. But in light of modern knowledge, one has to wonder if all that current flowing over his body, in his daily life, was not a contributor to his death. We are not talking milli-watts from a Cell phone here, but tens to hundreds of kilowatts of his wireless power transmission experiments.
Radio wireless transmission of power is not a practical technique. It has niche applications, such as RFID and microwve-ovens and diathermy. But it would greatly disturb wireless communication applications and create hazordous situations if generally applied.
Guy Cobb commented:
I recently demonstrated a small wireless setup on my online tv show called The Tennessee SuperLab. At the individual level, companies are focusing on convenience...you come home and are able to charge multiple devices on a single pad without having to plug those devices in (the pad itself of course it plugged in). Where the real value resides is in the potential to charge large groups of devices simultaneously. Consider a pallet of devices that have been manufactured and are all individually boxed, then all of those boxes placed on a pallet. Wireless energy would eliminate the need to charge each device with an individual plug/charger prior to shipping. A Faraday cage dropped over the pallet will eliminate any EMF from affecting workers or other electronics. Nasa was searching for a similar solution that would allow them to power & charge equipment within the shuttle prior to launch. This would eliminate the need for "tethering" power chords to the shuttle's frame prior to launch.
Mark Hein commented:
Westinghouse cheated Tesla out of the royalties for AC power distribution, otherwise he wouldn't have needed Morgan's money. Tesla died in poverty.
wirelesspowercompanies commented:
There is some good info about wireless power companies at: wirelesspowercompanies.com
dmccallum commented:
You all might be interested in a white paper just published by WiPower, it provides details on the wireless power techs currently available, it can be found on the home page of wipower.com
Alex EE commented:
While I think many of Tesla's ideas are way ahead of his time. I think wireless power transmission is limited. I think there are some possibilities for "resonant, reactive" transmission over short distances, and for directive transmission of point to point power such as from solar powered satellites to earth. But I think most of us are perfectly content to be "isolated" from vast rivers of electric power by distance or insulation. The idea of being immersed in an electric "sea" of high potential energy is decidedly disconserting.
mrfixitrick commented:
Tesla efforts are finally coming to fruition, as superior ideas must eventually do. We will find the wireless transmission of power and geothermal power to be the same cornerstones of the future that Tesla predicted 100 years ago.
As Tesla put it so well...
“Let the future tell the truth, and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I have really worked, is mine.”
Joseph R. Herb commented:
The truth marches on. All the time, Tesla's work is becoming more recognized, while that slug Edison's becomes more tenuous. Justice!!
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