BY VIJAY
We have mobiles for speaking wireless and internet for surfing wireless but we are yet to have wireless energy. Energy or Electricity is the basic need of human beings and even after 300 years of its discovery we are yet to transfer it without wires. Japanese scientists have achieved something which was not achievable up to now, they have transferred energy wirelessly over a distance of 55 meters.
The researchers from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced last week that they had used microwaves to deliver 1.8 kilowatts of power through the air to a receiver 55 meters (170 feet) away at pinpoint accuracy. It is to not that the 1.8 kilowatts may just be enough to power a kettle but more important fact is that wireless energy transfer can be achieved.
“This was the first time anyone has managed to send a high output of nearly two kilowatts of electric power via microwaves to a small target, using a delicate directivity control device,” a spokesperson for JAXA told AFP.
The team of scientists have been working on devising Space Solar Power Systems for years, the spokesman said.
The advantages of solar power generation are huge. The scientists hope to place the huge solar sheets in space which will give permanent energy to earthlings regardless of weather conditions on earth or the time of day. The idea, said the JAXA spokesman, would be for microwave-transmitting solar satellites—which would have sunlight-gathering panels and antennae—to be set up about 36,000 kilometres (22,300 miles) from the earth.
“But it could take decades before we see practical application of the technology—maybe in the 2040s or later,” he said.
While the Japanese scientists are hope to take this technology into space by 2040s, the implications this wireless energy transfer technology for earth are tremendous. We thought about such things only in science fiction but once this technology is commercially viable, it can serve electricity to the remotest place on earth.
Three cheers to the JAXA scientists.
No comments:
Post a Comment