Technology is becoming increasingly mobile. For electric vehicles, autonomous systems, robots, wearables, and mobile electronic devices, the power supply is proving to be a limiting factor. This is because the volume, weight, limited capacity, and long charging times of batteries restrict mobility and flexibility. The remedy for this could be wireless power transmission or – even more consistently – power generation directly in the mobile device.
The transfer of energy through empty space is not new. The sun has been practicing this procedure for more than 4.5 billion years. But the losses are gigantic; Most of the energy radiated by the sun is lost in space, and only a tiny fraction reaches the celestial bodies that orbit around it – and only a fraction of that can eventually be harnessed. The same applies to earth when it comes to wireless energy transmission over distances of more than a few centimetres: Their efficiency (the ratio of usable energy to total energy expenditure) is well below 1 percent and drops rapidly with distance.
One solution is the bundling of electromagnetic energy. That is why Emrod, a cleantech company founded in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2019, relies on a beam-forming technique that converts electricity into a parallel-aligned electromagnetic beam sent directly from one antenna to another. One year after its founding, Emrod presented proof-of-concept for wireless power transmission with a beamforming efficiency of more than 97 percent. Founder and CEO Greg Kushnir explains the key innovation: “We achieve the high efficiency with electromagnetic metamaterials. With them, we can strongly bundle the electromagnetic energy in the transmitting antenna. We are convinced that through further improvements on the transmitting side, and especially on the receiving side (where the greater losses currently occur), we will be able to realize an efficiency of over 80 percent for the overall system.” The usual efficiency for power transmission over high-voltage lines is 60-95 percent, depending on the country and considering losses, for example due to power theft. Metamaterials, such as composites of metal and plastic, have “unnatural” optical, electrical, and magnetic properties. They contain man-made repeating structures that interact with electromagnetic waves in unusual ways, provided the structures are smaller than the wavelength. For example, metamaterial can direct radar beams around itself in a way that it remains invisible to radar.
Field tests are currently taking place
The metamaterials that we design and build are characterized by their smart properties such as precise shape, geometry, size, orientation and arrangement which allows us to block, weaken, amplify or redirect electromagnetic energy. Emrod uses the 5.8 gigahertz frequency for wireless power transmission. This frequency, which is also used by radar, directional radio, WLAN and Bluetooth, among others, is largely independent of weather conditions. The beam-forming technology developed by Emrod guides the energy in the form of a strongly bundled “rod” from the transmitting antenna via relay antennas to the receiving antenna. The company name is also derived from this technology: “Em” stands for electromagnetic, “rod” for rod. In cooperation with the New Zealand power supplier Powerco, Emrod has developed a larger indoor prototype and is planning to build a wireless system that can be used to further expand Powerco’s supply network. The system is expected to help provide power to remote locations and eliminate the need for expensive copper cable installation in areas with difficult terrain. Furthermore, the wireless system is said to significantly lower maintenance costs and reduce environmental impact. “Especially for renewable electricity generation, wireless power transmission offers itself as a key technology for transporting energy to the consumer in a sustainable way,” says Kushnir. That’s because transport by cable requires a lot of space due to substations and transmission line towers, as well as many materials such as copper and steel, and a considerable amount of maintenance and repair work.
Could this really be the future of energy transmission?
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