PowerBeam steps closer to launch of wireless electricity
Transferring electricity through the air to power an electronic gadget seems impossible. Nikola Tesla, the radio pioneer, tried unsuccessfully to do it in the early 1900s. Technical hurdles have plagued the attempts to do the same thing ever since.
But PowerBeam, a small Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company that I first came across in April, 2007, says it is making progress on a technology that can transfer electricity - or more accurately generate electricity - across a room. It does so by focusing a laser on a solar cell, which converts the energy into electricity.
Grier Graham, vice president of product development, said the company can use a laser to generate about 1.5 watts of power to a solar cell as far away as 10 meters. That’s enough to power an electronic speaker, a digital picture frame, or small lights. But it’s not enough to operate a laptop (which requires maybe 30 watts to 50 watts).
