Could electric power be sent through the atmosphere instead of using wires?

Question

I read about Nicholi Tesla. One part mentioned about him trying to sent electricity wirelessly through the earth's atmosphere. This would eliminate expensive high voltage power lines. I heard much of Nicholi Tesla's discoveries were cover ups. Is wireless power transmission true? If so, how could it be done?

Answer 1

In fact electricity can be pulled out of the air and transfered as discussed. Tesla (Edison's understudy) invented a way to pull DC current out of the air. The problem with DC current is that it looses strength over distance. So, without a constant power loss over distance it is hard to transfer.

However, you can pull it right out of the air in places like Miami.
It is said the Tesla was driven crazy because the energy providers at the time (oil, coal) could ndot appreciate the idea of people having free energy. Tesla eventually invented a DC gathering device that exploded and ended his life. It is rumored that the the knockdown of hundreds of trees in the siberian wilderness coincides with his doomsday machine (it was designed to be a weapon) fired it's first and only shot.

Answer 2

All electromagnetic waves (like radio waves, light waves, microwaves, etc.) carry electrical "power".

But since a wave naturally spreads out, most of the power would be wasted -- since most of the wave would scatter into space or be absorbed by the ground, or other objects (You have to plug in a radio into the wall, because the "power" carried by the tiny fraction of the original radio signal that is absorbed by your radio antenna is so weak, the electric signal needs to be amplified many times over just to run a speaker.).

The fact that air is a poor conductor, as stated by some people above, has nothing really to do with it since electromagnetic waves travel just fine through an insulator, or even a vacuum (Yes, there is always some losses, but that is not the main problem.).

Some long range radio navagation towers are so powerful that they light up any light bulbs nearby (So you don't need a flashlight; just carry an ordinary bulb in your hand as you walk around the tower.).

BTW, the transformer on the telephone pole outside your house wirelessly transmits power from one side of the transformer to the other (since the primary and secondary coils inside are electrically isolated from each other). So does an electric motor, since the turning rotor is electrically isolated from the stationary stator coil. Moving magnetic fields push electrons around, thereby producing a current in any conductor they encounter (Called "inductance"). Electric fields do something similar.

Answer 3

Yes it can. A few years ago the National Research Council of Canada built and flew a small plane without any on-board fuel or batteries - it had an electric motor that was powered by electricity "beamed" to it from the ground, like radar waves or microwaves. It was very inefficient, but it did fly, and in theory could fly forever.

If anybody has any more information on this, like a web site, I'd like to hear about it.

Answer 4

Lightning is currently the only "natural" way to transfer electricity, and even then, it's only electric charge, and not a useable flow of electorns. When electricity is transmitted directly through the air (lightning) much of the energy needed is wasted in light flashes and enormous heat and sound. Very inefficient.
Electricity CAN be transmitted IN-directly in the form of microwaves, lasers, even ordinary light. Use electric power to transmit powerful focused beams to a receiver, and transform it back into electricity: however, when you do that, energy is lost, and it becomes inefficient. A direct line is best.

Answer 5

Nicholi was disproven so many times. He just stuck by his ideas no matter what anyone else said. Good determination, bad for science. He did succeed in one thing...Tesla coil. Sold in Spencer Gift's everywhere.

Answer 6

Yes, but not with Tesla coils, since doing so is too dangerous. Instead we can use radio waves, microwaves, or x-rays to do tht. However, radio waves are too weak to send power at harvestble amounts, and x-rays are too dangerous. Microwaves are still in experimentation.

Answer 7

You could use lightning, but only if it was used enough to make it worth it because the voltages required to stat the arc would be tremendous (from hundreds of thousands to millions/billions of volts), but once the arc is started, the ionized air conducts electricity well.

Answer 8

Its only possible for smaller signals like the ones cell phones use. It would be too costly to transmit it throught the atmosphere bc of loss of the signal as it traveled

Answer 9

It's inefficient and potentially dangerous to transmit large amounts of power this way.

However, it does work for transmitting small amounts of power. This is how RFID tags work.

Answer 10

The atmosphere is a poor conductor. The losses would negate any benefit.