The Dawn of Wireless Electricity Is Finally Upon Us. Here's How New Zealand Will Do It.

https://www.popularmechanics.com ^ | MAR 31, 2021 | CAROLINE DELBERT

[Red Badger]

Ping!...........

[taxcontrol]

Fried pigeon anyone?

[Red Badger]

Squab......................

[Cboldt]

Instead of resting on power lines, birds will be roasted by them.

[Gay State Conservative]

Rat Party Headquarters has vowed to outlaw coal fired plants,gas fired plants,oil fired plants and nuclear plants. Once that's done it's easy to see why there’d be no need for power lines.

[rightwingcrazy]

I wonder how lssy this method of power transmissn is

[Wuli]

So, at 160 feet between transmission points the present “unsightly infrastructure” of power poles will remain, just without the wires/cables. That’s what it sounds like.

We have has all kinds of studies of the present types of microwaves, when it comes to the environment, but no major environmental studies of mass transmission of electricity by microwave.

It sounds like an idea that needs a lot more R&D before it is judged practical or not.

[Wilhelm Tell]

What about when it rains?

[monkeyshine]

Do you think I can get a research grant studying cancer rates among migratory birds?

Nahh... they probably don’t wanna know.

[Dave Wright]

I’m not sure the helicopter pilot’s association or the FAA is going to back this idea unless there is some visible warning.

[Bigg Red]

Fascinating stuff.

[Red Badger]

Being on fire is a warning...............

[Magnum44]

[Da Coyote]

And methinks the power loss per distance unit will be much greater than cables. And, of course, there be increased losses during fog/rain/snow. Sorry, I’m betting this will be a loser.

[noiseman]

We already have wireless electricity. The hard part is receiving it without going up in a puff of smoke. It has the additional problem that it is often accompanied by hail and tornadoes.

[alloysteel]

What about birds and other aerial objects that pass through this “tight beam”? Isn’t that something like getting stuffed in a microwave oven?

And you though windmill generation stations were bad for the birds....

Before satellite TV was widely used, there used to be TV microwave signal transmission towers set up as relays across wide parts of the US, but that system was quickly abandoned with the advent of digital TV transmission, which can be done over optic cables buried in the ground.

AT&T once had a whole network spanning much of the US.

https://www.wired.com/2015/03/spencer-harding-the-long-lines/

[ClearCase_guy]

Rectenna? It damn near killed him!!

It doesn’t quite work.

[lowbridge]

Oh, big deal. Grandpa Munster did it first.

[Drawsing]

Emrod generates electricity in a tight and focused beam in the non-ionizing Industrial, Scientific, and Medical band of the electromagnetic spectrum—the portion of the radio band that corresponds to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth frequencies.

That sounds harmless unless this tightly focused beam is of some mega-intensity that goes way beyond my regular Wi-Fi.