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Researchers transmit energy with laser in ‘historic’ power-beaming demonstration
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https://www.nrl.navy.mil/news/releases/researchers-transmit-energy-laser-power-beaming-demonstration
Navy scientists demonstrated a long-range, free-space, power-beaming system with a laser that did not require anyone to put on safety goggles. Very cool!
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If, if should I say when, this becomes commercially viable it could do away with above ground powerlines. No more downed powerlines during storms. Imagine that!
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As the article mentions, this concept has been around for quite a while (decades). In a former life (early 1990s), I did a study for NASA that adapted a ground-based free electron laser being developed under the Strategic Defense Initiative (aka “Star Wars” Program) to beam power to a manned lunar base, precluding the need for 14 days of battery power during the long lunar nights. We designed an atmospheric compensation system and beam control optics that could keep the near-IR beam focused on the tailored, wavelength-specific solar panels located at the base, which would be located on the near side of the moon so it would always have line-of-sight to the laser (barring cloud cover). Part of the study was to identify multiple ground sites that were de-correlated regarding potential cloud cover.
Interestingly, beaming power from the ground to space is harder than the reverse (the article mentions beaming power from space to the ground) due to the physics of atmospheric compensation (the so-called “shower curtain effect”). It is gratifying to see a concept finally coming to fruition.
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