How Wireless Energy From Space Could Power Everything | Ali Hajimiri | TED



Modern life runs on wireless technology. What if the energy powering our devices could also be transmitted without wires? Electrical engineer Ali Hajimiri explains the principles behind wireless energy transfer and shares his far-out vision for launching flexible solar panels into space in order to collect sunlight, convert it to electrical power and then beam it down to Earth. Learn how this technology could power everything — and light up our world from space.

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44 Comments

  1. Amazing, so many things are limited by battery time today, especially drones, imagine a plugged in station beaming power to the drone to fly over long distances. Or that all mobile phones will auto charge via a station at home, no nees to put down

  2. Last time I looked at available tech here (some years back…), getting the material to space and assembling it, collecting energy, and beaming it to earth were not the biggest challenges; it was that the energy densities of the beam had to be kept very low so it doesn't fry things on earth (that was with microwaves…).

    At that look, with beam energy densities held below "allowable" limits for human and other exposure, you would need huge antennas on earth to generate significant power. Don't recall sizes, think was many square miles at minimum — but conclusion then: just put your solar panels in the same space on the ground in sunny places and pump into the grid.

    Will need to look further at this to see what their idea is.

    Beyond that, what looks new and different here is the phased arrays of PV chips and the ability to actively direct beam direction and focal distance. That is cool

  3. That's wonderful! Please, create a vacuum cleaner without cable. Moving Miele vacuum cleaner on his own cable is something you need to try to understand how messy it is. You loose the will to clean the house.

  4. I am just so surprised that people have very low enthusiasm about this. This is basically WHAT Nikola Tesla envisioned, wireless electricity and he was called names. It is a revolutionary idea, project, and now a reality with proof of concept.

    So surprised that people hardly applauded, there are only 54k views after 2 days and so few comments. Come on people, support the energy revolution! 🙂

  5. Thank you. This was very interesting and informative. The demonstrations of wave interference from multiple wave sources are very helpful visuals. I'm guessing Directed Energy Weapons (DEW) operate in a similar fashion, producing and concentrating microwave RF beams and steering them. My guess is that bad actors have already designed DEW weapons using this well known principle of wave physics to attack people. The visual demonstrations of Constructive and Destructive wave interference patterns helps me to better understand and visualize how "Anomalous Health Incidents" (sometimes called "The Havana Syndrome") can be deliberately induced.

  6. BAD IDEA to collect energy from space and focus it at planet earth. What could the negative consequences be, I wonder?

    I thought of this as a child, and immediately realized it was a terrible idea.
    Yes it can be done, but to raise the thermal energy collection of planet Earth would raise its temperature. 
    Planet earth has a relatively specific surface area and a relatively stable thermal energy collection with respect to the Sun's output.  We are already seeing the consequences its temperature rising just a couple degrees.

    Have none of you ever played with the magnifying glass in the Sun and pointed it at your hand or a piece of wood?

    It's a fine idea to use locally on the planet.  That was impressive, but perhaps a bit dangerous. It's just so irresponsible to suggest ideas like this without even mentioning the dangers to humans animals or anything living or anything containing water at or near the focal point of the energy transfer target.  Line of sight but also be a dangerous area.

    I wish at least some of you would think this through before supporting it blindly, like a shiny new object.

    Ask if we could, then ask if we should.

  7. Who gets to control the steering mechanism? I've heard about this fantasy for a half century (read too many sci fi novels as a kid) but the logistics get in the way of taking this seriously.

  8. I mean, cool, but how exactly are they receiving this energy and transforming to electricity? And sure, two perfect waves in perfect constructive interference get 4 times the energy but how efficient is the real system? Sorry but it sounded a lot like buzzwords and scamming if you don't have actual proof

  9. Basics
    Earth is cooler w atmos/GHGs/albedo not warmer
    Ubiquitous GHE heat balance graphics don’t + violate LoT
    Surface cannot radiate “extra” energy as BB
    GHE=bogus&CAGW=scam

  10. He means well, and will live good on 'Developmental' funding for 12yrs+.
    Ahahahah Send it to a warzone? We only fight for energy to start.
    Ahahahahha Democratize energy= PAY a Fair price. Sub Saharan Afrikans who live in huts have no money.

  11. Greenwashing; the minerals and fuel necessary to do this are still something that sustainable energy can't sustain. Industrial civilization has come to a point where earth cannot output enough energy to power our demand without fossil fuels, no two ways about it. Even if it could, we could not obtain the minerals necessary to do that without burning enough fossil fuels to end life as we know it.

  12. No energy, charge, photons, waves, spin, fields, potential, quantum,quarks, space, time, space- time, etc. “The Final Theory: Rethinking Our Scientific Legacy “, Mark McCutcheon for proper physics, not this misguided magic.

  13. I am a theoretical physicist and I call this BS. Yes, it's possible to power a solar panel by shining a light on it, but all the rest is crap. I sense a Elisabeth Holmes type of grifter here!

  14. Finally, a video on ‘negative refractive index meta materials’. These MMs that develop a Doppler shift that can be used for a new energy source at the nano scale. By seeding nano these dielectric metallic structured resonators into micro water droplets, the gain in energy will split these water molecules. These meta materials will be the save our plant from overheating, by creating this new energy source.

  15. I can see this going in so many different ways.
    Hes essentially creating the possibility of a Dyson sphere and some how highlighting the geopolitics of it simultaneously.
    I cant wait to see what happens.

  16. wait a sec, aren't we worried about solar storms knocking out THE INTERNET?? Are we ready for space-integrated energy systems when we can't even manage decent fidelity on cell phones??

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