Satellite power grids will transmit energy around the world

Satellite power grids will transmit energy around the world. Emrod, a New Zealand firm, claims to have the technology to enable effective wireless energy transfer from orbit. It proposes a worldwide wireless energy grid that will immediately transmit renewable energy between any two sites on Earth via satellite.

As part of the ESA’s current drive toward 24-hour-a-day space-based solar power. The concept of satellite power grids is not new. The issue has always been size; transferring a few gigawatts of energy to Earth from a geostationary orbit 36,000 km (22,370 mi) away would require a 2 km (1.2 km) diameter transmitter and receiver. Creating an array of that magnitude on Earth would be a huge undertaking.

Emrod claims that its near-field energy beams are far more efficient than rival technology. However, Emrod founder Greg Kushnir believes there is a much cheaper and easier way to meet European – and indeed global – renewable energy needs: by establishing a global wireless energy matrix capable of instantly beaming power around the globe, using lower-orbiting satellites that could be significantly smaller.

Emrod’s World Energy Matrix proposal would require significantly less ground- and ocean-floor infrastructure, avoiding or at least replacing a slew of design and implementation issues.

The firm has expanded on the tiny, lab-based ideas we discussed in 2020. The current square transmitting and receiving antenna prototypes have a diameter of 1.92 m (6.3 ft). However, with the support of New Zealand energy company Powerco, it has already proven capable of doing so over at least 200 m (656 ft) outdoors, and the company claims it is ready for commercial deployment over much longer distances – basically, all that is required is a direct, clear line of sight between the antennas or relays.