How Wireless Energy From Space Could Power Everything | Ali Hajimiri | TED
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- čas přidán 5. 06. 2023
- 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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This will help us become a type 1 Kardashev scale civilization!
I hope that all people on earth will get access to it, a whole new open-source community has to be built around this and all nations should be involved. Well done to this team and everyone else involved in taking such a great spot in human history. Wow!
Wow, great
Won't happen if the globalists want to consolidate power and subject the masses, what good is advancement in technology if we as a species haven't evolved spiritually
I love how everybody has the same realization, it shows how the collective consciousness has and is shifted and still shifting to higher levels of being
Currently we are a type 5 Kardashian scale civilization.
@@xXxBladeStormxXx hahaha
I can't wait to hear more on this project. Thank you.
Finally the dream of Great Scientist Nikola Tesla coming to reality after a delay of few decades which was caused because of some greedy persons of His time....I wish he could see his invention turning reality 😢
Beam forming technologies have been in use since the 70s at least (e.g. military Russian radars). They are totally commonplace now (see Starlink), in non terrestrial networks and in mMIMO antennas in mobile networks. The use case is information transmission. There is no business case for energy transmission. Also for safety reasons. There's a reason why the power of your smart phone is limited to 2 Watts.
But they are not talking about information, they are talking about energy. I understand why energy transmitted wirelessly is dangerous, but how come they don't mention anything about that here?
Nikola Tesla made a nice car though his teslas are awesom
This concept is so far beyond what Tesla was doing. Tesla was simply trying to send large unmanaged voltage potentials through open-air. What he was doing was extremely dangerous. He did not invent this concept. The only similarities are energy moving through air or space instead of using a wire. You Tesla wishful thinking people really misunderstand science. Emotionally wanting to believe something is different from hard science. Tesla was a legend and deserves many credits but his modern followers are quite delusional from precise science.
The other thing that this presenter completely skipped over is the growing problem of space junk. I don't think this will ever take hold because when you have a large surface areas of thin-film solar panels like he's talking about it will exponentially increase the chance of small particles space junk hitting them. The more things we launched into space, the more this will continue to be a growing problem.
Notice your emotions as you follow science. We must set those aside when we do true logical analysis in scientific matters. The desire for things to be true creates The Conspiracy Theory type mind.
@@brianwnc8168 Tesla created a nice car though I’ll give him that
i'm annoyed that he did not state how much energy is lost in transmission
i'm assuming it is AN ABSURD AMOUNT of power wasted to transmit it to ground
Starlink uses 50W+ just to transmit data to space, i'm curious how inefficient phased array antenna power transmission is
I remember in 2010 i asked my physics teacher about wireless energy transfer and he said the same thing. Not very efficient as all, too wasteful
@@PHILLL94 Your phone wireless charger is millimeters away and it is already about 50-60% efficient
If phased array from space to ground achieves more than 10-20% efficiency i would be surprised, but i really have no idea how much is physically possible
Terrible efficiency just requires a compelling use case.
The more terrible, the better
The sun produces a bunch of energy that is lost into space and never reaches Earth. Collecting that "wasted" energy is hyper-efficient since it would have never reached earth anyway. It's not as a simple as just measuring the efficiency of the panels like you would with Earth-based solar panels.
This is great. I first heard of the concept after watching City of the future: Singapore and seeing that they have launched a station in space blew my mind. this technology will help a lot of isolated islands . Not to mention us filmmakers, there will be no need to carry heavy power generators to charge the film gear in the middle of the desert
Congrats Dr. Hajimiri and team ! Amazing achievement for humanity, and also a continuation of Ancient Iranians’ Earth-friendly innovations. Afarin!! ❤
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
Thx for commenting!
Yeah in that light bulb demo I didn't see anyone sticking there hand right on the receiver.
I agree. 100%.
the energy density for even the drone is not too dense. There are other videos of them sending the beams through their stomach and putting their hand between the drone and the generator and it is visibly safe for human exposure there@@grejen711
You need a huge area, but you can farm there, and you don't need batteries.
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.
did someone just said dyson sphere?
So Fascinating! Beamforming is a inspiring technology
The idea and technology is really so great ....🎉
Great to see my favourite professor 😊
Keeping the cost and hassle and distance aside , I don't understand how the major problems which you mentioned related to putting panels in Deserts are solved by putting panels in space ?
You said space receives 8 times more energy received than the surface of the earth because of atmospheric absorption, night, season etc, but all these factors will come into play in case of panels in space too. The energy which you are sending from satellite will also suffer atmospheric absorption, (I can think of ionosphere very quickly which can disrupt electric energy), how about cloud covers etc. And satellite above a lot of countries doesn't always get sunlight, it depends on too many factors, the earths shadow can and will be the there on satellite for long periods. Also what kind of disruption will it cause to flights, birds and other safety etc when you send high powered electric beams from space ? Isn't it more practical to extract the energy when you are receiving it for free here in the surface from the Sun.
yes
wow! great presentation!
Wow and the elegance of the solution is insane!
It is elegant except for the cost, the space debris, and the environmental impact.
what the password of your wireless energy? hahaha
In 2006, Huntington Beach CA, and during an R&D meeting at my company, I proposed the concept of developing a wireless charging solution for our cutting-edge laptop brand, "Zinoh." Despite facing skepticism from engineers who initially considered it implausible to transmit electricity through the atmosphere, I held firm to the vision. Today, I'm grateful for the innovative minds that embraced the challenge and turned this once-dismissed idea into a reality. Unfortunately, our brand didn't thrive, but the experience underscores the importance of embracing bold ideas that push the boundaries of what is deemed possible.
My favorite professor.
So happy to be alive
surprisingly this video also partly teaches how aesa radar works using tr modules
What about the impact of this high energy EM waves on human tissues. How safe is this ?? Any research in this direction would be mandatory
The word to power „everything“ is definitely too good to be true.
Thank you
Good job Mr
Does this require a direct line of sight? Wouldn't that hamper the scalability of the transfer?
Im just mind blown by all the emergence of new technology that is happening everyday.
There's nothing new about this. This technology is already highly developed decades ago. It has never been done because it's not economical, and it introduces new safety problems and space debris problems that solar power on the ground does not have.
Scary and fascinating at same time🥲
'BATTERYLESS BATTERIES': (copy and paste from my files):
To help power equipment in outer space:
Potential endless energy source basically anywhere in this universe:
a. Small aluminum cones with an electrical wire running through the center of the cones, cones spaced apart (not touching I'm thinking) but end to end.
b. Electromagentic radiation energy in the atmosphere interacts with the aluminum cones.
c. Jostled atoms and molecules in the cone eventually have some electrons try to get away from other electrons of which those electrons gather at the larger end of the cone, of which also creates an area of positive charge at the smaller end of the cone.
d. The electron's in the wire are attracted to the positive end of the cone and the positive 'end' in the wire are attracted to the negatively charged end of the cone.
e. Basically a 'battery' has been created inside the electrical wire itself, different areas of electrical potential. Basically a 'wire battery' or a 'batteryless battery', however one wanted to call it.
f. Numerous cones placed end to end increases the number of 'batteries' in the wire.
(In series to increase voltage, in parallel to increase amperage).
* Via QED (Quantum Electro Dynamics) whereby electromagnetism interacts with electrons in atoms and molecules, one would have to find the correct 'em' frequency for the correct material being utilized for the cones. The shape of the cones could also come into play. The type and size of the wire as well as the type and thickness of the insulation between the cones and the wire would also be factors.
* Of course also, possibly 2D triangles made up of certain materials with a conductor going down through the center of the triangle could possible achieve the same 'batteryless' battery system.
* Plus possibly with the 2D concept, layered 2D's that absorb different energy frequencies, thereby increasing the net output.
This would be huge for Mars. Because of the dust storms, solar panels on the surface are less than ideal. This has led us to use miniature nuclear reactors to power our latest and largest rovers.
Outer space "above" is a fantasy cartoon. Does not exist. What people call Mars is not a physical object we can reach. It lies in the heavens beyond the firmament.
I thought of Musk buying him same. Energy from above without dust storm to keep the NeuraLink factor workers going.
But the dust storms that block the sun will also block the beam from this solar panel array, and the cost of building the array on Mars would probably be enormous compared to the already huge cost of doing it on earth. Sounds to me like nuclear is still the way to go on Mars. Nuclear is also a great tool in the arsenal for fighting climate change on earth.
The beam cannot travel through everything, weather will still be a factor on any planet
Btw, great explanation about how this works 👏
He just explained beam forming in layman terms. The electronics is similar to what a Starlink antenna uses.
It's amazing
Energy will reduce twice the distance, and it also depends on the large aperture of the antenna on the ground station. He should have mentioned how much energy is received at ground station from space.
Remarkable
RF is just a subset of the electromagnetic spectrum, the carrier wave/particle of which is the photon. This is just more complicated solar. It needs a serious cost/benefit analysis versus other forms of solar energy.
I suspect that the cost of development of the technology, testing, and deployment to space would be a greater cost than deploying ground based solar for the same energy collected.
The energy requirements to launch huge amounts of material into space mean this is more suited for a 13 year old's fantasy project, not anything practical.
It is impossible because power loss of any wawe is to big.
The indoor application looks very promising. But for the satellite projection; wouldn't we still need to install a solar panel like infrastructure on the ground to receive the energy? What will be the benefit of this approach? Will it eliminate the need to store energy on the ground? Because that alone would be a big step forward.
its mostly for better energy collection efficiency since solar panels are already not very efficient, and are greatly impacted by the atmosphere greatly reducing the light. its basically collecting solar power unobstructed then transferring the energy to earth as efficiently as possible
if they can build a strong enough receiver that can withstand heat... loss will be less if used sometign like laser thats directional.. but another problem is that is bigger problem then loss in this case is destruction risk ratio of that laser/ligh :D
This is really cool, but what are the caveats to a system like this? EMF for example. In my opinion, more studies should be conducted regarding the EMF with respect to the human body. It is a wave/signal that would technically transmit through the body if one were in-between. Again, I think we could/should pursue these types of wireless energy transfers while in parallel studying best safety approaches.
He's in the news now!
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
I wonder how harmful it can be though especially in large doses. Like a pseudo space laser
"If we can't put a meter on it, we don't want it" -JP Morgan to Nikolai Tesla.
Tracking a drone with high density wireless power sound like it could go wrong easily. Phones that are always charged would be cool but concentrated high energy beams of microwave pointed at peoples pockets would be very risky.
3:57 : I think you missed the timing on that joke, mate ahaha. Only kidding of course. Great presentation!
the question for me is the efficienty of the process. this energy need to pass VERY big distance to her destination and through the atmosphere. is it possible? and more important, this approach are enough economical compare to our exsisting solutions?
so good 👍👍
I was researching on how to do it already existing technologies, but aslong nothing moves it's better way to make it using components
i uess moon can be used for this... ie its relatively stationary... atleast more stable then satelites... ie place lots of panels there and beam it from a one emitter to specific position on eart... as its only one stabilising the target point will cost less and easier to adjust compared to satelite based repositionning protocols...
Noval concept interesting 😮
Can the direction changing be vulnerable to some form of external interference ? it seems when directing energy it is important that it gets delivered to a very specific intended location.
Should some disturbance occur one could envision a misdirected "beam" cause effects harmful to life forms that come subjected to it ?
On the other hand if possibility for disturbance is low then I imagine it could be difficult for a third party to protect against undesired effects of energy transfer on a 'receiving end' ?
Concerns of the technology becoming employed in weapons development.
Very interesting. Look around your neighborhood at all the electric lines and poles. Imagine all the poles and lines gone. Imagine not starting wildfires because there are no more high voltage electric cables going for miles in the forest. We need this ASAP.
For any techy, nerdy, scifi person out there, I cannot recommend enough that you read Isaac Asimov's books and short stories! He was decades ahead of his time and predicted this very technology 70 years ago!
Nikola Tesla did it before!
He was warning humanity, but we are still too greedy and stupid to realize that.
Especially these "innovators"...
Yessss
Techy, Nerdy 😂😂😂😂 why all people involved in technology since childhood are nerdy 😅😅
@@fawadahmed7354 Difference between a nerd and an engineer is that the nerd will fail to notice the innumerable flaws in that concept and hail it as a long awaited game changer whereas the seasoned engineer will instantly identify them and move on.
Thought is perhaps much ahead of time and that's why there are some ifs and buts...
If the wireless energy transfer happens, it would be the best green energy revolution ever
Too good 👍 👌 👏 ❤
He should have mentioned the results of their experiment!!! :O Did it work at all? Etc. off... now I have to research... and people won't be convinced :( It will hopefully become amazing though! :D
Perhaps a scalable unit panel with sustainment in mind could be the way.
دمت گرم دایی ،کارت درسته👌
Loss of efficiency through the attenuation of signal would mean the panel in space would need to be massive. The cost of launching this massive structure would make it economically unviable. Indoor applications are too niche to reach mass adoption, hence why he’s pitching to a TED audience and not to the market. Interesting idea, but DOA without an actual problem this can solve.
5:24 did anyone see that jump cut in the demo video?
Came here looking for this comment
🔥🔥🔥
Military : So you're saying that we could send a person "some" energy from a distance?
The wireless technology was awesomeness🎉
Best wireless tech is still the humble stone. You can throw it, you can smash with it, you can build with it, you can sharpen it.
Truly. Wireless rocks are the best
This is such great tech. I can't believe he didn't mention Nikola Tesla as the pioneer of Wireless energy transmition
Tesla never gets his due :(
The same reason why musk doesn't advocate his philosophy - Tesla wasn't driven by money and mirrored socialist ideals of sharing the worlds assets, resources, ideas and its wealth with everyone and not just for the Musks and the other 1% owners of the worlds wealth.
That’s the same thing I was going to say 😢. I’m an Electrical engineer and I really love Tesla’s work, when someone takes his ideas to build new inventions without mentioning him it’s so painful 😢
It been powering everything since the beginning of this planet.
This could be the precursor to matter conversion and matter conversion the precursor to immortality. If you can conceive of something it's likely possible.
Getting more energy from space when we can't even get rid of the excess and the Earth is over-heating seems a brilliant idea indeed.
you can charge your celphone with wireless sender bcz its electromagnetic wave. buy can you do same in long distance?
I wonder about living things in the pathway of the energy likes birds, trees and us and what happens with absorbing that energy and is it dangerous, etc.
this looks dream
endless possibilities ...
The solar array / antenna would need to be huge. To be economical it would have to be very lightweight. What you end up with is a solar sail that impossible to keep an orbit.
Another consequence of being so big is that it would be hit by micrometeoroids frequently and generate a large amount of space debris. At the altitude of geosynchronous orbit, the debris cloud would persist essentially forever.
Finally, suppose this could be done. What would the light pollution be like on Earth from hundreds or thousands of square miles of solar panels?
❤
it enables a Dyson swarm!
I like it!
Been screaming this since I saw Lex Podcast with Brian Keating ⚠️🌐🧐🤌 Galileo and the lense 🥸 Celestial energy can be harnessed tho provide energy on Earths surface
this is how @3:27 starlink ground atenaea access the low orbit satellites.
It’s The Powers that Be in the way of progress.
You don't need to use paranoid fantasies about the powers that be to explain why this idea has not been adopted. It does not make sense economically. Solar power is a great thing, but there is no need to put it into space and then being the energy back to antenna on the earth.
so genius in progress
His space idea, as he said, isn't new, but that has more potential. The main issue I suspect is the cost per kWh is likely far higher in expense than any existing energy generation/transmission methods. There is a lot of energy out in the universe, the tricky part is extracting it in a cost effective way.
Wow this should be more widely reported than apple vision pro
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.
Try a Dyson 😂
@@JonoConstantini 😁
1. What frequency?
2. How much power?
3. Is it funded by defence?
The perfect UFO stage setting
Wait so you launched the rocket with your test on board ... did it work!?!? Good god man the suspense
Well, technically just an advertisement. What could justify the concept is to know what is the end of the line efficiency? How much of energy these transceivers waste? What is the life time of the panels? Could they survive solar winds? How much energy is required to keep them in the orbit, without solar push? What is the cost and size of the end of the line earth station antennas? What is the transmission loss? How do they compare to alternatives? We know polyamide based substrate should go bad with radiation and thermal stress sooner or later. Well, these questions are being evaluated probably , but then some charts and plots could have helped.
I see at some point a better future for power transmission only component. Say we have 4 large solar farms in Africa, in Chile, in Australia and in Asian deserts, they can provide a flat power plateau when combined 24-7. Just need massive repeater-reflector-power hubs in the space, and local power receivers on earth. Well, this is maybe too inefficient in the end…
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.
Phase
you're not ready for the next breakthrough yet
firstly
respect+position+trust
If the only application for this was to safely beam down power from space to grid stations and replace current dirty electrical generation systems, it would change humanity. No more excuses on switching to electric transport systems. Massive gains in reduction of fossil fuel usage world wide.
I would love to see the impact this could have on aviation considering the safety concerns would be lower related to the energy wave traveling between space and the atmosphere and never having to reach more populated areas. Also shipping. Beam power directly to ships in shipping lanes away from populated areas.
When it comes harvesting energy it can be useful, but to employ in delay life as medium then it will be highly inefficient
Sunlight is wireless energy that gets delivered to earth..
fr people aren't using solar enough
Exactly, we don't harvest anything even remotely close to even 1% of it today. As he said, put big giant solar farms in the desert and be done! But that is too easy to do and does not attract venture capital.
Just Amazing…
yeah, let's collect energy from an even larger area of space and concentrate it in the same volume, can't think why that could be a long term problem...
AESA and PESA radar?
My only concern is possibly biological impact if this goes large scale
this is haw the Starlink satelites work
would this technology make hydro electric power obsolete and why or why not ??
01:51 But where does the energy go? I mean Energy is always conserved.
@2:05 this must be kinda how prayer works
If all the armies of the world gave up their budget for just one year and diverted their funds for this project, in just two years we would have that what this man is talking about.
😊😊
2:55
9:00 !!
Good speech!
Are you interest to intall wireless electricity to in India, Kerala state
How do I invest in GuRu?
Integrate this technology into starlink. They already have the infrastructure to add these to their existing satellites, and they could create power and WiFi worldwide simultaneously. Would make for an awesome future. They might even sell more teslas if you didn’t have to go charge them 🤷🏼♂️
What is IT that you are radiating with the phased array (ants)?
Is it light, RF...?
technical hype aside, the idea of subsidized, community infrastructure of any kind is anathema to capitalist corporate-owned states. sending power to conflict zones and developing nations is a great marketing point, but there is no possibility unless a company profits. even if such infrastructure were feasible, it would be locked behind class. more likely, it would replace power-over-ethernet and other niche, corporate energy transmission technologies.
Sound waves behave the same way. I used to work at a music center where we installed sound systems in churches and cathedrals -- ironically, the worst environment for intelligible speaking. The systems we installed could "focus" sound waves to cancel themselves just before the walls. This eliminated the sound reflecting off walls, echoing in the hall.