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Wireless Electricity Set to Power Village
freedommatters writes "The UK Sunday Times has a story today about how "Scientists have successfully applied the technology used in microwave ovens to beam electricity without the need for unsightly pylons and overhead cables." A prototype has illuminated a handful of light bulbs and they expect to be able to power a remote village within three years."
I can feel my brain warming already.
Honor Among Slackers. A veri
In the beginning they called it lightning, now they call it Wireless Electricity!
Note to self: get smarter troll to guard door.
I assume the microwave beam would have to be highly focused in order to work. What safegaurds are there to make sure nothing gets in the way of the beam?
(the article is unavailable without a $55 subscription, maybe it is spelled out in the article?)
And kids with four fingers on each hand instead of three. ;-P
8==8 Bones 8==8
Is a similar concept. Radiation from the sun converted into electricity.
Why aren't lines buried to be less obtrusive, better insulated, and non-problematic in ice storms?
Recently, in February, South Carolina, my home state, had a very bad ice storm. It was called "the worst on record". Why was it called that? It wasn't really the worst. Duke Power, our service provider, has failed to maintain the lines in there above ground condition. Lots of trees had grown through power even over and around some lines. Then there was the typical stupid driver who ran into a number of poles all over the area.
I was without power for 4 days. Luckily, I had an UPS unit from a server that has 40 hours and I use a laptop as my main computer. It powered everything in my place including a small heater for a while.
To be on topic, eventhough the above is too: I don't think we should be pushing conventional power to 3rd world countries. With this implementation of "beaming power" - power still has to be generated at a plant with with most likely a non renewable resource. Why can't we give these same people advanced windmills and solar cells? (Then teach them maintenance) That makes so much more sense. I see the costs of even an experiment; very high. Also, I think Microwaves at a ground level would interfere with radio communications at the points below the transmission.
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
Tesla was pushing "broadcast power". It was doomed to failure because of the problems inherent in charging the atmosphere. What they are proposing here is quite different. Haven't read the article, but I'm slightly familiar with the concept here. You simply convert electricity into microwave radiation and transmit it in a tight beam to a receiving station. No problem, old hat. Doing it on this scale might be a challenge, though. On the other end you have a receiver that converts that radiation back to usable electricity. Quite a different problem. I suspect that's what they're pioneering here. I think it has actually been done before, but not in any practical way. Powering a few lightbulbs isn't exactly practical either, but it would be if you could power a small town, or even just several buildings.
But keep out of the way of the beam!! I have to wonder about the environmental damage of birds/insects flying through it and getting cooked.
I remember reading about a proposal to send power to the earth this way. By having a massive solar cell array in space transmitting microwaves to a giant receiver on earth, you could gather lots of energy. The thought of this thing getting off track and aiming at, say, NYC seems a little too scary, though.
"Microwaves for the electricity are targeted via antennas and reflectors at a ?rectenna? (from the words rectifier and antenna), "
;-)
I'm glad they defined a rectenna for me...I thought it was an antenna you stuck up your ass!
-psy
This is a more detailed publication pdf file
Five, Four, Three, Two, One....
Electricity can be beamed through the air without a pylon in sight
Roger Dobson
SCIENTISTS have successfully applied the technology used in microwave ovens to beam electricity without the need for unsightly pylons and overhead cables.
The power is fired through the air in the form of microwaves and collected in special antennas that reconvert the microwaves into electricity.
A prototype of the wireless power technology has shown the system works and a full-scale version is now being built to make a remote village on the French-governed island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean the world's first microwave-powered community.
According to a report to be published this week, the system is a cheaper way than either solar energy or local generators of supplying remote areas not connected to a grid.
"(Electricity) network distribution is effective at the centre but the costs increase quickly when you get to the edge," said Dr Guy Pignolet of CNES, the French space agency, which has conducted the trials.
"Extending it to remote areas is very costly, but with microwave technology you do not have those costs. You also do not have pylons, which you may not want in sensitive areas."
The technology works by converting direct current (DC) electricity into microwave power at the transmitting end in the same way that switching on a microwave oven converts electricity into waves using a device called a magnetron. Residents are unlikely to be baked as the frequencies in the two applications are entirely different.
Microwaves for the electricity are targeted via antennas and reflectors at a "rectenna" (from the words rectifier and antenna), which absorbs the microwave energy from the beam and converts it back into DC power with diodes.
In Grand-Bassin on Réunion, which lies at the bottom of a 3,000ft canyon with no road access, electricity is currently provided by solar panels placed on the roofs of the houses. But increasing the amount of electricity solely by using the panels is difficult because of the amount of surface area needed. It is also expensive.
The researchers have successfully produced a field prototype to illuminate a handful of light bulbs. A second prototype is being finalised and will be in operation in about 10 months, while the whole project to supply the village with power is scheduled to be completed within three years.
Additional reporting: Nick Speed
But really, now that I think of it, I should have told them that it would have worked if they'd implemented RFC 3251 over 802.11! ;)
In Soviet Rush, today's Tom Sawyer gets high on you.
"The scientific man does not aim at an immediate result. He does not expect that his advanced ideas will be readily taken up. His work is like that of the planter - for the future. His duty is to lay the foundation for those who are to come, and point the way."
-Nikola Tesla
Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master. -Commissioner Lal
Infrastructure is an evolutionary process. It's the fact that we have cheaply available power that sets up the conditions by which we produce cool power hungry gadgets. It's the fact that it can be delivered in large amperages to densely packed locations that makes it so everyone in your apartment building can watch a separate big-screen T.V. at the same time.
:)
Thus, it is completely unfair to knock this technology because it will never be a match for a burly copper cable.
Imagine what it's like to live in a remote village that has no power available. First off, this almost always means no phones, land-line or cell. It also usually means that the families that are better off run their generators during certain hours of the day, producing noise and fumes, and enough power to get some work done, but they don't run them day and night. Four hours a day at a few hundred watts of power and no phones would significantly change most of our lives.
The most important thing microwave power could provide would be to enable a low power cell-site to give continuous operation at low cost. Unobstructed, 10 five watt channels would provide good communication for a few thousand people if used frugally (the way everybody did when roaming was $2 per minute). The people in the town could set up cellular fixed station adapters and wire their homes with copper and have a cheap phone in every room. With rechargeable batteries that charging up during the generator "power hours" they could have hours worth of night of phone calls to everyone else in the village, and more importantly to people outside the village with which they might want to do business. Even people without generator access could buy a pocket phone with two batteries and leave one at the neighbor's house charging while the other stayed in their pocket to give them emergency contact capability.
In regularly overcast areas (I live in one) the day often has enough light to see by, but not enough to read by. Just one 30 halogen bulb produces better reading light than any oil lamp I've ever used. Without light to read by, or TV of course, nights around here could get pretty boring, and homework pretty hard to do.
Since this is "a remote village" that means it's likely there are some uninhabited outskirts between it and the nearest big city. So between your microwave distribution points there wouldn't have to be any people at all. They could also aim the beam such that overspill wasn't directed toward the town.
I don't like the idea of radiation burns any more than the next person, but if done correctly there would be little danger. This could be a tremendous asset to people living off the grid, and to tower-climbing children wanting to roast hot dogs.
In order for this to work, they would have to make the beam extremely focused from transmitted to receiver.
If they don't do this, not only do they get the heatlh issues you point out, but the system simply won't work in practice.
All energy that is not captured by the receiver is lost.
Tor
Come on, people that work around microwave antennas do have higher incidences of cancers.
I am aware of cancer clusters around some high voltage power lines that was traced to chemical compounds (used in the insulators, IIRC), but no responsible studies that link microwave antennas to cancer. (I use the qualification "responsible" because I have seen "studies" by the cell-phones-are-killing-us wackos that make the claim, but their methods were so flawed it was funny.)
-- MarkusQ
What the hell is "the technology used in microwave ovens?!?" Buttons? Electricity? Light bulbs? Microwaves?? Do journalists even read their own inane statements? Hey, I just harnessed the technology used in keyboards to send an e-mail, it's revolutionary...
That old power line thing was disputed a while ago - mostly just a media fad. I was working at the NIH with one of the guys who first noticed the magnetic field effect on celles in culture.
It has never been shown to cause any cancers.
Radiat Res 2000 May;153(5 Pt 2):627-36 Related Articles,
Leukemia and lymphoma incidence in rodents exposed to low-frequency magnetic fields.
Boorman GA, Rafferty CN, Ward JM, Sills RC.
The PCB coolants used in/around many of those power stations is another subject.
Just to help hammer the nail home, there are many FDA approved devices that use magnetic or pulsed elctronic field devices to aid in bone healing. No reports of cancer yet in these either. Some increased cell growth yes, but cancer no.
This kinda crap science is usually perpetuated by the media and lawyers hoping to make a few bucks (well, usually they want a few million).
Bah!
..........FULL STOP.
The microwave systems that SSI have studied are basically like a UHF tv station transmitter (sans Weird Al).
Birds don't cook, people don't mutate, airplanes won't crash from this. Since this is a line of sight system, the range is probably less than 20 miles. Even so, it will make a terrific demo that proves the practicality of powering cities from SPS.
But on the bright side, all you have to do is lift a hot dog on a stick up into the air, and you've got lunch in under 2 minutes!
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
Besides wondering what marketing genius came up with that name, just what kind of efficiency can you get with this principle. The losses are at:
a) conversion from AC to DC
b) conversion for transmission
c) losses due to Tx antenna efficiency
d) losses during transmission incl. energy lost toasting birds and folk getting in the way of the Tx beam
e) losses due to Rx antenna efficiency
f) losses during rectification to DC
g) losses during conversion to work (here light), more if you go to storage (battery) and back again.
Those add up pretty darn quick. Plus power received varies as an inverse square law of the distance from the transmitting site. Not very efficient. Seems like strictly a niche application.
"Consensus" in science is _always_ a political construct.