Considering the "real world" efficiency of a standard electric plug is nearly 100%, this technology has nothing but environmental downsides.

From the day I first heard of this, I was completely under-whelmed. It seems a very expensive solution to a non-problem.

the need for efficient, cheap electricity transmission is key to making the largest alternative energy projects cost-effective.
furthermore, the copper and plastics used in transmission lines consume enormous amounts of energy and resources just to construct and run across the landscape.
so, i believe wireless transmission holds promise for making a real difference.

ummm.... 60 watts at 75% theoretical efficiency is a cool feature for laptops and cellphones, but is a far cry from practical for EVs.

EVs need to charge at kW rates, not watt rates and throwing away at least 25% of the 10s of kWhrs needed to charge an EV would be insane.

This was Tesla's dream and he even implemented a working system (Wardenclyffe Tower). Unfortunately Tesla's view of free energy for the whole world was too revolutionary; it was his financer, J. P. Morgan, who cut his funding since Tesla had no reply to his question "Where can I put the meter?"

Tesla's view on future cities and energy distribution is very inspiring. Nice to see it come back since some of Tesla's megalomaniac ideas were dismissed at the time.

Now the same question will come up; just like WiFi, will you allow your neighbour to suck some of your power through your walls? Will we have to wrap our houses in Faraday Cages?

I guess that in the current political/economic situation this will be limited to very short range/low power applications for purely economic reasons.

As for the environmental concerns, my opinion is that 50% or 75% is fine as long as you green your energy production.

I'm more worried about the energy field bleeding out and cooking my 'nads, cooking bees, effing up birds ability to navigate, and 1000 other lifeforms on Earth that can't adapt to high power EM fields all over the place. That includes me. I'm breaking out the tinfoil hat.

I can already imagine electricity hotspots, and people using security to keep their neighbors from stealing power (all technically doable). The future is here!

"ummm.... 60 watts at 75% theoretical efficiency is a cool feature for laptops and cellphones, but is a far cry from practical for EVs."

It went from 40% efficient to 75% efficient in one year, maybe they can push it further.

" cooking bees, effing up birds ability to navigate, and 1000 other lifeforms on Earth that can't adapt to high power EM fields all over the place. That includes me. I'm breaking out the tinfoil hat."

I think that if you don't walk around with a WREL antenna in your pockets, with the wires connected to your 'nads, you should be okay.

This stuff doesn't work by magic, there is a lot of theory and experiments behind it. It would probably be much simpler to do if it actually could "bleed" into random things that easily and didn't need to be so finely tuned..

I'm with Chris and Anonymous#3. Add this to the growing list of things to protect your nads and brain from. Besides, the physics says that the efficiency will never get close to a power cord, and if you worry about the EM field coming off of power transmission lines (loss off of an actual metalic conductor), wireless phones, microwaves, cell phones, etc., imagine what you get when you are trying to radiate all the transmitted power as an EM field....

*cue all the EM paranoids*

They say that there is no risk to humans because its a magnetic field, but at 10Mhz that is a high frequency field which when combined with a real home environment will produce many many harmonics.
What will the effect of these harmonics be? will they interact with toxins and pollutants in our bodies etc?
I total agree with Chad, they are trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist!
Its an interesting science project and I'm sure it will find some invaluable applications, but if every home in the first world had these we'd end up wasting even more energy than we do now!!

"They say that there is no risk to humans because its a magnetic field, but at 10Mhz that is a high frequency field which when combined with a real home environment will produce many many harmonics.
What will the effect of these harmonics be? will they interact with toxins and pollutants in our bodies etc?"

Sounds like pseudo-science to me.

I don't think they're thinking about having it in every house yet, but I could definitely see having a plate to put on top of a small desk or table, and whatever I put on top of that desk gets recharged (laptop, phone, etc). This is more electric toothbrush than Tesla-power.

@Brendan,

This tech is ok for low power and short distances, but not suited for large scale power transmission and over long distances.

Though I like your dream, it will likely be multiple decades( if not longer) before this can be scaled up to meet the distance and power capacity required to replace transmission wires while also addressing the environmental and safety concerns of changes incurred by large, high-energy, air-based, electrical fields.

The energy savings of high efficiency transmission cables over their multi-decade use span should also be weighed against the environmental damage of the proposed energy production and transmission methods.

It's great to imagine( and invest in) a energy system(generation, transmission, conservation) that is 100% renewable and environmentally friendly, but it's better to work ( and invest more in) towards a reasonable, sustainable, timely solution.

@João,

I believe that Tesla's large scale wireless transmission medium was ground based not air based as the above system is. ie The above wireless system passes the electricity through the air - Tesla's proposed & prototyped wireless transmission system passed the electricity through the earth at more than a few feet below ground level.

What a profoundly dumb idea. A power transmission system that can only go 50 feet or less. A system that tops out at 50-100 watts only. And a system that wastes at least 25% of the energy you put into it. But wait, it comes in attractive 2 foot diameter flat coil sender and receivers.

And this is to be compared to a common power cord that can travel these same distances, with more power, and near 100% efficiency. And costs about $0.10/foot.

This should get the Cleantech equivalent of the "Razzies" award that serves the movie industry as the opposite of the "Oscars".

energyguy, look where the finger is pointing, not at the finger.

Cellphones and computers looked like pretty crappy deals for the average person when they were just out of the lab... and people where wondering what the hell could computers be used for.

You make the technology first, and then you refine it and find applications.

Intel may pretend human bodies are unaffected by magnetic fields, I will never buy it. My brother was exposed to very intense static magnetic fields as a researcher on superconductor technology, and died in 2000 from astrocyte brain tumor. A colleague from him developped the same tumor, but had better luck in that surgery was possible for him.

The link the magnetic field was never established, but all that can be said is that there were no attempt neither from doctors nor from his company to scientifically refute or prove such a link. They stated there was no link but they obviously lacked enough data to argument on this statement.

Magnetite was first found in birds brains as it has higher concentration, and it is well known now that humans brain contains this material too. So saying magnetic fields have no effect on humans is complete bullshit. (you can look at http://www.biophysics.uwa.edu.au/magnetite.html or search the web for references).

It's well known also that industries do actively negate the risks associated with their production, see tobacco as reference case. Why would Intel bother to do otherwise? because they suddenly became "green" ? Let me laugh :)

It is obvous to me and it should be to everyone that Intel has no long-term experience on big numbers needed to support such dangerous safety claim.

Call it pseudo-science if you like, but please do argument it you don't want to sound foolish.

And please take yourself away from these kind of technologies that trades safety for what a quick look could see as conveniance, but is more probably a disaster in incubation.

Please excuse my english, you'll understand I'm non native english speaker.

When I was in jr high in the early eighties, my friends and I played a TSR RPG called Gamma World. In this world, electrical devices (laser guns, vibro swords, androids, etc.) were powered with "broadcast power." At the time, I thought it was the most ridiculous thing, but was useful in game. It's amazing 30 years later to see this technology actually be developed.

However, I have to agree with the caution-seekers. Exposing the body to high-intensity EMR is just too risky. My friend's father worked for the phone company installing new lines on the poles back when they would check the lines with 4 pound wireless handhelds. He always used the phone with his right year. After 20 years he was diagnosed with 4 brain tumors by his right year, none on his left side or anywhere else. He died within months.

HAHAHAHAHAAHA INTEL INVENTS WIRELESS POWER MY REAR END. Wireless power has actually been available for about 70 some years. Don't believe me? It was just one of the bazzilion inventions that a little known man named Nikola Tesla gave us. He is the inventor of wireless power and radio. He is a god.... People please google him.

Calm down, Tanner. If you bothered to read the article, you'd have seen that nowhere does it claim that Intel invented it. just that it showed it at IDF, and that their version is more efficient than past versions.

This is nice that more companies are getting involved in the wireless electricity revolution.

I know that a company called PowerBeam is also involved in the wireless era and they safely transmit energy through optical energy, instead of the copper wires and the electro-magnetic field.

By using optical energy they can send energy over long-range distances. Their device also has a safety system so that it shuts down if anything is close to the beam.

If anyones interested in more info regarding optical energy transfer check out www.powerbeaminc.com