SergiusPaulus
Senior Member
Sounds neat. Transmitting power with a laser beam. Similar to solar energy but uses laser light versus sunlight.
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Power Beaming
- Thread starter SergiusPaulus
- Start date
I wouldn't call that "completely safe" technology. They're using a 400w laser in their "small" example. One reflective flash off that and you're blinded before you can blink. Mobile power beaming to drones is dangerous for that reason. A flock of birds flies between the drone, and you've got a bunch of dead and injured birds. They're using some kind of solar cell array to collect the energy, so that's probably not more than 15% efficient in transfer.
Nikola Tesla did wireless power transfers, but his exact methods aren't well documented for reproduction. We'd be better off figuring out the missing pieces and making one of his systems.
SergiusPaulus
Senior Member
Regarding Tesla maybe this new technology being researched will be a catalyst for other research into technology that Tesla discussed. (Alternating Direct Current in this article. )
NASA Validates a New Form of Energy
At the Energy and Mobility Conference & Expo, NASA and ADC Energy USA, Inc. (ADC USA) jointly published a breakthrough validation of a "new form of energy."
www.azom.com
What Tesla did was high frequency, high voltage pulsed DC to get his exotic reactions. These aren't very DIY friendly to make, so they're not studied very well. I'm not sure about ADC being low voltage. The article makes it sound like an AC waveform with a DC offset. I guess we'll find out more as time goes on, or big oil will bury it.Regarding Tesla maybe this new technology being researched will be a catalyst for other research into technology that Tesla discussed. (Alternating Direct Current in this article. )
NASA Validates a New Form of Energy
At the Energy and Mobility Conference & Expo, NASA and ADC Energy USA, Inc. (ADC USA) jointly published a breakthrough validation of a "new form of energy."
www.azom.com
SergiusPaulus
Senior Member
Scientists used a laser beam to bend a bolt of lightning for the first time
The technology offers hope lasers could one day be used as lightning rods to protect people from storms.
www.businessinsider.com
Lightening influenced by a laser.
Would that mean that electricity in general can be directionally guided by a laser?
On a smaller scale, can we direct electricity from an electrical source to maybe an appliance? Imagine having a kitchen appliance on the counter near an outlet, but instead of plugging it in, the outlet uses a laser to “push” the electricity from the outlet to the appliance. Would it be more efficient than a power cord? Does a power cord effect the efficiency of an appliance?
Or an example of something in a more controlled environment.
The high powered laser partially ionizes the atmosphere and the lightning bolt somewhat follows that conductive trail. The picture is deceptive as the straighter part of the bolt was the radio tower.Scientists used a laser beam to bend a bolt of lightning for the first time
The technology offers hope lasers could one day be used as lightning rods to protect people from storms.
www.businessinsider.com
Lightening influenced by a laser.
Would that mean that electricity in general can be directionally guided by a laser?
On a smaller scale, can we direct electricity from an electrical source to maybe an appliance? Imagine having a kitchen appliance on the counter near an outlet, but instead of plugging it in, the outlet uses a laser to “push” the electricity from the outlet to the appliance. Would it be more efficient than a power cord? Does a power cord effect the efficiency of an appliance?
Or an example of something in a more controlled environment.
This does not scale down to the home level. They didn't say the laser power, but it was probably in the mid kilowatt range. I've already stated that these lasers will burn your eyes out faster than you can blink. They will also carbonize your skin before you can even feel it. Pointed at an appliance, it will burn a hole through it then set your home on fire... and then burn through the wall and set the neighbor's home on fire.
In terms of efficiency, a power cord will win every time over ANY wireless technology, even a poorly made, undersized one made in china from defective metals. I found an article about wireless eV charging the other day and how they claim it's the future. The problem is efficiently transferring that energy to the car, and the article didn't say. The further away the coils are, the less energy gets transfered. It isn't a linear function, probably a squared function, so dropoff is very fast... maybe magnetic, and that's cubed, so dropoff is much faster than that. There's already talk about low megawatt level chargers for 18 wheeler trucks and heavy haulers. Those will definitely be wired, as wasting even a small fraction of a megawatt is absurdly expensive. The electric grid can barely handle what we're pulling off it right now. Adding thousands of megawatt chargers for heavy vehicles isn't practical.
