Wireless electricy news and discussions

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Researchers Just Wirelessly Transmitted Power Over 98 Feet of Thin Air
byAdmin •
September 02, 2022
https://blog.scientiststudy.com/2022/09 ... ZWjvagzEFQ
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Imagine walking into an airport or grocery store and your smartphone automatically starts charging. This could be a reality one day, thanks to a new wireless laser charging system that overcomes some of the challenges that have hindered previous attempts to develop safe and convenient on-the-go charging systems.

"The ability to power devices wirelessly could eliminate the need to carry around power cables for our phones or tablets," said research team leader Jinyong Ha from Sejong University in South Korea. "It could also power various sensors such as those in Internet of Things (IoT) devices and sensors used for monitoring processes in manufacturing plants."

In Optics Express, the researchers describe their new system, which uses infrared light to safely transfer high levels of power. Laboratory tests showed that it could transfer 400 mW light power over distances of up to 30 meters. This power is sufficient for charging sensors, and with further development, it could be increased to levels necessary to charge mobile devices.

Several techniques have been studied for long-range wireless power transfer. However, it has been difficult to safely send enough power over meter-level distances. To overcome this challenge, the researchers optimized a method called distributed laser charging, which has recently gained more attention for this application because it provides safe high-power illumination with less light loss.

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Researchers develop arrays of tiny crystals that deliver efficient wireless energy
https://phys.org/news/2023-08-arrays-ti ... eless.html
by Susan Glairon, University of Colorado at Boulder

Imagine a person on the ground guiding an airborne drone that harnesses its energy from a laser beam, eliminating the need for carrying a bulky onboard battery.

That is the vision of a group of University of Colorado at Boulder scientists from the Hayward Research Group.

In a new study, the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering researchers have developed a novel and resilient photomechanical material that can transform light energy into mechanical work without heat or electricity, offering innovative possibilities for energy-efficient, wireless and remotely controlled systems. Its wide-ranging potential spans across diverse industries, including robotics, aerospace and biomedical devices.

"We cut out the middle man, so to speak, and take light energy and turn it directly into mechanical deformation," Professor Ryan Hayward said.

Hayward and his team describe the new material in a report published July 27 in Nature Materials.

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World's fastest wireless EV charger unlocks 100 kW parking spots
By Loz Blain
March 18, 2024
https://newatlas.com/automotive/100-kw- ... -charging/

A new wireless EV charging pad can fill a car's battery as efficiently as a wired plug, at groundbreaking 100 kW power levels – unlocking the possibility of fast, efficient and super-convenient charging simply by parking in a designated spot.

Wireless power transfer was famously first demonstrated in the 1890s by one Nikola Tesla. Today, it's fairly commonplace in many homes, where plenty of folk use wireless charging pads for phones, tablets and electric toothbrushes, as well as inductive cooktops. The power is transferred from the charger to the device through the interaction of electromagnetic fields, and what was once dark magic is now considered a safe, convenient and efficient way to get the job done.

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No outdoor outlet? Power Mole transmits electricity through window glass
By Ben Coxworth
March 25, 2024

The Power Mole wirelessly transmits 10 watts of electricity through window glass, allowing indoor outlets to power outdoor devices. It's built on the inductive coupling technology utilized in wireless smartphone charging systems.

Currently the subject of a Kickstarter campaign, the Power Mole was created by California-based inventor Peter Bevelacqua. It's made for situations in which devices such as security cameras or decorative lights need a power source, but there are no outdoor outlets nearby.

The setup consists of two puck-shaped components: the transmitter, which is adhered to the inside surface of a window pane, and the receiver, which is adhered to the outside of the pane. The transmitter is plugged into an indoor household outlet, while the receiver is USB hard-wired to the outdoor device.

https://newatlas.com/around-the-home/po ... dow-glass/

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory Creates 100 kW Wireless EV Charger
It's as powerful as a Level 3 charger and is up to 96% efficient.
By Ryan Whitwam April 1, 2024

Engineers at Oak Ridge National Laboratories (ORNL) in Tennessee have brought us one step closer to electric vehicles that charge themselves without any tedious plugging and unplugging. The researchers recently expanded a laboratory proof-of-concept wireless charging system to the real world using a modified Hyundai Kona EV. The wireless charging system was reportedly able to juice up the car at 100 kW, adding hundreds of miles of range per hour of charging.

The system, as implemented in the test vehicle, has a five-inch gap between the charger on the ground and the receiving coil on the car. In a previous laboratory test, the same setup reached 120 kW charging speeds, but this test features a production vehicle perched above the prototype coil. Usually, any separation between transmission and receiving coils causes efficiency to tank, but the team says this system has an impressive 96% efficiency rate. That means just 4% of the supplied power is lost as heat.

https://www.extremetech.com/cars/oak-ri ... ev-charger

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DARPA intends to wirelessly charge drones while in flight by power-beaming
By Joe Salas
May 28, 2024

DARPA has committed further funding for far-field wireless power transfer – or power-beaming – to wirelessly charge drones in flight without them ever having to abandon mission to recharge or swap out dead batteries, potentially saving critical missions.

Dr. Ifana Mahbub, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at The University of Texas, had already received the Young Faculty Award from DARPA in 2021, giving her US$500,000 over two years for her project. The fellowship offers an additional $250,000 in funding to continue development of the power-beaming technology.

https://newatlas.com/technology/darpa-f ... in-flight/

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Oakridge National Labs Demos Record 270 kilowatt Wireless Charging of Electric Cars
June 22, 2024 by Brian Wang

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2024/06/o ... -cars.html
Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have successfully demonstrated the first 270-kW wireless power transfer to a light-duty electric vehicle. The demonstration used a Porsche Taycan and was conducted in collaboration with Volkswagen Group of America using the ORNL-developed polyphase wireless charging system.

As a light-duty passenger vehicle, the Porsche Taycan would be difficult to equip using conventional large, heavy wireless power transfer systems. The vehicle can’t support the charging hardware due to space, weight and volume limitations. Existing wireless charging systems for light-duty vehicles are currently under development for up to 11-kW power levels with up to 92% efficiency. Current industry standards cover up to 20-kW power levels.

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Off the clothesline, on the grid: MXene nanomaterials enable wireless charging in textiles
https://phys.org/news/2024-10-clothesli ... nable.html
by Drexel University

The next step for fully integrated textile-based electronics to make their way from the lab to the wardrobe is figuring out how to power the garment gizmos without unfashionably toting around a solid battery. Researchers from Drexel University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Accenture Labs in California have taken a new approach to the challenge by building a full textile energy grid that can be wirelessly charged. In their recent study, the team reported that it can power textile devices, including a warming element and environmental sensors that transmit data in real-time.

Published in the journal Materials Today, the paper describes the process and viability of building the grid by printing on nonwoven cotton textiles with an ink composed of MXene, a type of nanomaterial created at Drexel, that is at that same time highly conductive and durable enough to withstand the folding, stretching and washing that clothing endures.

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US Army taps Raytheon to replace fuel lines with beamed power
By David Szondy
November 21, 2024

https://newatlas.com/military/us-army-t ... ines-beam/
In a move to make military logistics simpler by eliminating the need to move fuel and batteries around battlefields, the US Army has awarded Raytheon a contract to develop a directed energy wireless power system that can beam energy to where it's needed.

If you've ever seen images of armies in the field, it's easy to forget that each soldier is the sharp tip of a very long logistical spear made up of a huge number of people and a lot of materiel. This means that soldiers can only move forward so far so fast. If they move too fast, they can easily end up outrunning their supply lines and quickly run out of food, ammunition, medicine, and, most important, fuel and power sources.

The average US soldier today carries up to 140 lb (64 kg) of gear on their back – and a lot of this is in the form of batteries to run their equipment. Squaddies famously don't like these heavy batteries and tend to 'lose' them as soon as possible.

In addition, vehicles need fuel as do the increasingly sophisticated electronics and directed energy weapons which can rely on it for power. This means supply lines must be secure and convoys regularly deployed that need fuel to carry the fuel, which means more fuel is needed to carry that fuel.

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DARPA sets new records for sending power wirelessly
June 15, 2025

Looking forward to a future where laser beams replace power lines, DAPRA's Persistent Optical Wireless Energy Relay (POWER) program has set new records for transmitting more power wirelessly over longer distances.

When it comes to military and humanitarian operations, obtaining a steady, reliable source of power is of paramount importance and this has only increased over time. As a result, the world's major military forces invest a staggering portion of their budgets to supply electricity, fuel, power plants, and all that goes with them as part of an increasingly complex supply line.

However, no matter how much power technology improves, there's still the ever-present problem of getting that power from Point A to Point B – a problem that is often insurmountable across the infamous last mile where power lines cannot be slung or pipelines buried and soldiers are often reduced to hauling jerry cans of fuel over rough country by hand and back muscle.

https://newatlas.com/military/darpa-set ... out-wires/

[40lightyears]

Wireless charging over that kind of distance would be a total game changer — no more hunting for outlets or carrying chargers everywhere. If they can safely boost the power to handle phones and tablets, I’d be all in

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Wireless charging pad tops up ebike battery through the kickstand
By Paul Ridden
July 20, 2025

What if, instead of lugging a heavy ebike charger around for mid-journey top-ups, you could wirelessly juice up the battery through the kickstand? That's the idea behind the Tiler system, which is relaunching as a plug-and-play Compact version.

Since launching the limited prototype pilot and then the production Tiler Uno a few years ago, the company says that its system has accounted for more than 300,000 kilometers (189,500 miles) of ebike range. The new Compact flavor brings "everything people loved and trusted from Tiler in the past, but in a much smaller, better package."

The basic idea remains about the same. A chunky kickstand is mounted to an ebike and hooked up the charging circuit via an adapter cable. When the battery starts to run low, the rider parks up next to a Tiler Compact plate on the ground, flicks out the kickstand and places the foot on the 260 x 245 x 15-mm (10.2 x 9.6 x 0.59-in) wireless charging pad.

https://newatlas.com/bicycles/tiler-com ... nd-ebikes/

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Star Catcher Breaks Beamed Power Record With 1.1kW Transmission
Planning orbital demonstration of power beaming in 2026 before commercial deployment in 2027.
By Jon Martindale November 24, 2025
https://www.extremetech.com/aerospace/s ... ansmission

Florida-based startup Star Catcher Industries has managed to break the world record for beamed electricity using a high-power laser. Using its proprietary Star Catcher Network technology, it was able to beam 1.1kW of power to commercial, off-the-shelf solar panels, showcasing the potential of its wireless power transmission technology. This opens the door to in-orbit testing in 2026, before a full constellation deployment can begin in 2027.

The idea behind Star Catcher Industries' design is to deploy solar panel arrays in space that can store and beam electricity to other satellites using multi-spectrum lasers. DARPA has tried something similar using microwaves, but Star Catcher's laser design could be more straightforward, and it's already broken DARPA's record.

Since Star Catcher's designs would be built solely to generate power, it could focus on that and use larger panel arrays to produce much more energy than the average spacecraft. As needed, that energy could then be distributed to other satellites, which in turn may not need to fly with such large solar panel arrays themselves, improving their efficiency, cutting launch costs, and potentially expanding their capabilities dramatically.

"Space has waited decades for its energy revolution," said Howard Morgan, chair and general partner of the investment fund B Capital. "Star Catcher just delivered it."

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Replies: "innovation bad"

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