DARPA Hopes to Beam Power Across 200 Kilometers - IEEE Spectrum
Instead of using wires to deliver power, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), part of the U.S. Department of Defense, wants to wirelessly beam power over hundreds of kilometers. In September, the agency announced that it has chosen three groups to design the aerial relays required for such an endeavor. Anyone familiar with both laser beams and solar cells might imagine how power beaming might work: A laser can shine its beam at a distant solar array, which can convert that light to electricity. DARPA’s aim is not to bring electricity to homes but to deliver energy to places where it would prove difficult, expensive, or dangerous to reach with grid infrastructure or fuel or battery shipments. “Energy underpins every activity we do, including defense,” says Paul Jaffe, an electronics engineer who leads the Persistent Optical Wireless Energy Relay (POWER) power-beaming initiative at DARPA. A wireless energy web “could simplify logistics and fuel supply in an extremely fl
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