Modern life runs on wireless technology. What if the energy powering our devices could also be transmitted without wires? Electrical engineer Ali Hajimiri explains the principles behind wireless energy transfer and shares his far-out vision for launching flexible solar panels into space in order to collect sunlight, convert it to electrical power and then beam it down to Earth. Learn how this technology could power everything — and light up our world from space.
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Christian Soldier
June 6, 2023 at 12:49 pm
Looks like someone has been studying Tesla technology from a hundred years ago !!!! lol
JimBob1937
June 6, 2023 at 6:39 pm
No, not really. I like Tesla, he was a great engineer, but people have turned him into this mythical figure that supposedly invented every technology out there. You can give respect to an historical figure without making things up, and that is actually probably more respectful.
William McCarthy
June 6, 2023 at 7:34 pm
@JimBob1937 No maybe you should read about Tesla his patents that he took out at the turn of the last century were applied to cellular phone technology and yes he was working on transmitting energy around the world and being able to focus it .
JimBob1937
June 6, 2023 at 8:47 pm
@William McCarthy , I have read a lot of his patents. Not to argue by authority, but I am an electrical engineer, so I’ve always been curious about his works. His methods of wireless power transfer were quite rudimentary, which is what you’d expect, so it’s not an insult to him. However, while he was a great engineer for his time, modern engineering has far surpassed him. I’m curious if he were alive today, he’d likely still be a good engineer, but would have to hyper-focus into a single area of study like most modern engineers. Technology has gotten complex enough that specialization is almost a requirement if you wish to make headway… and I say this as a strong supporter of multidisciplinary education.
Raflitito Putra
June 6, 2023 at 1:21 pm
so genius in progress
JimBob1937
June 6, 2023 at 6:31 pm
His space idea, as he said, isn’t new, but that has more potential. The main issue I suspect is the cost per kWh is likely far higher in expense than any existing energy generation/transmission methods. There is a lot of energy out in the universe, the tricky part is extracting it in a cost effective way.
Nazmul Hossain
June 6, 2023 at 1:23 pm
Remarkable
Juyin Huang
June 6, 2023 at 1:28 pm
l wish rain drops can be transfered into energy and my 264 sqm roof solar panels can produce energy in raining days.
Plont
June 6, 2023 at 4:11 pm
Well that’s something you could do
Juyin Huang
June 6, 2023 at 5:45 pm
@Plont
Is there a system of solar panels which could convert sun energy into solar power in sunny days and also turn rain drops into electricity as those hydro power plants at raining days? If you know such a combined system, please let me know，much appreciated.
Dawid Wolnik
June 6, 2023 at 1:36 pm
you could made a sphere around sun or other star and send all the energy to earth
Petr Podolak
June 6, 2023 at 3:11 pm
You would fry the planet. 🙂 It would not be able to radiate enough energy. 🌞
Dawid Wolnik
June 6, 2023 at 3:16 pm
@Petr Podolak yeah, but you could do it 🙂
B. J.
June 6, 2023 at 5:56 pm
Dyson sphere is a fun thing to google.
Rayette James
June 6, 2023 at 8:35 pm
Then Why Aren’t You Doing It 🤔 God Bless ❤
The American American
June 6, 2023 at 1:39 pm
For any techy, nerdy, scifi person out there, I cannot recommend enough that you read Isaac Asimov’s books and short stories! He was decades ahead of his time and predicted this very technology 70 years ago!
Nacho
June 6, 2023 at 2:20 pm
Nikola Tesla did it before!
george so___s
June 6, 2023 at 3:31 pm
He was warning humanity, but we are still too greedy and stupid to realize that.
Especially these “innovators”…
Rayette James
June 6, 2023 at 8:31 pm
Yessss
Jalal Khosravi
June 6, 2023 at 1:45 pm
دمت گرم دایی ،کارت درسته👌
yes i will help stop patriarchy
June 6, 2023 at 2:03 pm
Water, Nutrition and Oxygen and the major currencies of our lives. Period. But sure, go on Mr. Tech-Fetish.
Ravikiran kalal
June 6, 2023 at 2:06 pm
So happy to be alive
yes i will help stop patriarchy
June 6, 2023 at 2:12 pm
The first question is: How does it affect living beings in the area? We are far from knowing how organisms work. And now we wish for massive EM-Pollution? Please Goddess, make the “smart” People less stupid.
yes i will help stop patriarchy
June 6, 2023 at 2:14 pm
You might get 8 times more energy in space. But in the desert it is about a million times more accessible to maintenance! This guy just wants his product to sell, no matter the sanity. And i am shocked by the blind believe in the TED-“Community”.
Mary Joyce Jumao-as
June 6, 2023 at 2:15 pm
❤
Shadowgolem
June 6, 2023 at 2:42 pm
So…solar is good…free energy from space…available now even.
george so___s
June 6, 2023 at 3:30 pm
These “innovators” never understood Asimov,they think these were his vision,not warning signs for humanity.
Lock him up,before he convinces some politicians to fund his scam with our taxes.
Snake oil traders should be dealt with like in the far west. On a rail with tar and feathers,Lucky Luck style…
Quick Quiz
June 6, 2023 at 3:55 pm
It’s a great idea, but with the turning off the earth I wonder 🤔
Nio Reason
June 6, 2023 at 5:23 pm
In the words of a great man ” The world is full of gullible suckers.”. I don’t know when TED began to allow these con artists doing talks. What’s even more amazing it’s the comment section full of uneducated people calling this genius or revolutionary. From what I’m seeing, all you have to do these days to scam people is to market as ” amazing electronics “, ” think of the children in Africa” , “think of the warzone”.
Jermaine Munene
June 6, 2023 at 5:38 pm
We are moving up the Kardashev scale….yeeeey.🐒
Adrian Punkt
June 6, 2023 at 5:58 pm
Giving the control over an energysource to one entity isn’t very smart 🤡
Tom Williams
June 6, 2023 at 5:59 pm
Sounds like James Bond in Goldeneye. Someone will weaponize the satellite and hold cities for ransom in lieu of melting them down. China probably has their people working on already. 😮
Garth T
June 6, 2023 at 6:09 pm
Show this to Elon Musk. Self powered starlink??
Sachin Raman
June 6, 2023 at 11:15 pm
It’s already self powered. Most satellites are
Garth T
June 7, 2023 at 9:22 am
@Sachin Raman I mean the ground station. Beam in broadband and power
Nancy Offenhiser
June 6, 2023 at 6:13 pm
Remember Diamonds are Forever? Or Die Another Day?
Ugh.
Mateusz Walendzik
June 6, 2023 at 6:27 pm
3d models, random videos of blinking LED lights, and a lot of selling the story. Seems like TED talks are lowering the bar for presentations and slowly are stopping from being the source of interesting and VALID ideas 😢
tetepeb
June 6, 2023 at 8:04 pm
This is really cool but how many of these “solarpanels” would the world need? WIth all the satellites/starlink etc it´s starting to get crowded real fast up there….
Rayette James
June 6, 2023 at 8:33 pm
Elon Musk Has Known All This
Dr. Sam
June 6, 2023 at 9:02 pm
No, he did not have a clue about this. Stop being delusional and commenting nonsense.
Rayette James
June 6, 2023 at 9:07 pm
@Dr. Sam Through God All Things Are Possible … Being A Dr.. God Bless Your Rudeness 😇😊🙏
Dr. Sam
June 6, 2023 at 9:56 pm
@Rayette James there is no god, stop forcing your delusions onto others.
Andre Jackson
June 6, 2023 at 9:32 pm
Our political leaders are all bought by big oil corporations any new energy source will owned by them and paid for by you . Tesla came up with a similar strategy
Raul Casabianca
June 6, 2023 at 10:09 pm
this is haw the Starlink satelites work
CK Gaming Channel
June 6, 2023 at 10:18 pm
“Wireless energy?”
Then what do you call (solar radiation)? Wireless energy already exists you fools.
Leonardo Avellar
June 6, 2023 at 10:35 pm
i’m annoyed that he did not state how much energy is lost in transmission
i’m assuming it is AN ABSURD AMOUNT of power wasted to transmit it to ground
Starlink uses 50W+ just to transmit data to space, i’m curious how inefficient phased array antenna power transmission is
Toa Tamatea
June 7, 2023 at 8:10 pm
I remember in 2010 i asked my physics teacher about wireless energy transfer and he said the same thing. Not very efficient as all, too wasteful
Jacob Zhuh
June 6, 2023 at 10:41 pm
The wireless technology was awesomeness🎉
iwan iwak
June 6, 2023 at 11:18 pm
what the password of your wireless energy? hahaha
Kristoffer Skaret
June 7, 2023 at 2:31 am
It’s an interesting technology, and I’m sure it can be useful for some applications, although it’s not at all new.
One very important question he doesn’t answer in the talk is how good is the efficiency/ how big is the loss?
Also, the sun is already flooding the entire earth with energy. It’s only a question of how to capture as cheep as possible. Solar panels in space sounds like a very expensive solution. Please do the math.
Kristoffer Skaret
June 7, 2023 at 2:46 am
Btw, great explanation about how this works 👏
Josh
June 7, 2023 at 3:55 am
Cool sci fi story
abhishek kumar
June 7, 2023 at 6:51 am
Finally the dream of Great Scientist Nikola Tesla coming to reality after a delay of few decades which was caused because of some greedy persons of His time….I wish he could see his invention turning reality 😢
ElvisTranscriber2
June 7, 2023 at 8:27 am
7:54 *you can think about sending this to a remote sub-saharan village where there’s no infrastructure for power transmission….*
Imagine thinking that this abismal alternative to having and owning your own infrastructure in your sovereign territory would not lead to cases of people waving their basic energy autonomy to someone else from a far distance…. They could give you some bullcr@p story that they cannot send you all the energy that you need and you would have to take them at their word… This is energetic enslavement I prefer solar alternatives where independent producers of energy can resell their energy back into the grid…. *This sounds to me like a last ditch attempt at having energy companies being the only ones who could create and maintain such facilities* …. *it doesn’t scale down to the average joe in the street with his solar panel feeding the grid…. It’s more like the billionaire exclusivist cake for only them to enjoy*
Just *THINK ABOUT IT*
solayman naserzade
June 7, 2023 at 10:40 am
Thank you
うぉ〜でぃん
June 7, 2023 at 12:12 pm
🌞
Ayush Singh
June 7, 2023 at 1:00 pm
01:51 But where does the energy go? I mean Energy is always conserved.
Jérémie Kalfon
June 7, 2023 at 1:02 pm
Why use FV in space. Just use mirrors. The efficiency aspect is dumb here
Wisdom Happy
June 7, 2023 at 3:47 pm
So Fascinating! Beamforming is a inspiring technology
Andy Cordy
June 7, 2023 at 4:05 pm
I can’t wait to hear more on this project. Thank you.
Fabio N
June 7, 2023 at 9:15 pm
Just Amazing…
Desi Travel Explorers
June 7, 2023 at 10:39 pm
Great idea presentation with proof of concept experiment. Success of this concept could revolutionize space travel and significantly reduce fuel usage for inter-planetary travel. Elon, ISRO and other team would immediately build such capability for adoption in space engineering.
You’re in a cult
June 7, 2023 at 11:26 pm
Deliver Us The Moon?
kondapalli abhishek
June 8, 2023 at 2:07 am
That’s a great innovation 👏👏
IGNITED34
June 8, 2023 at 3:58 am
he just reinvented ultrasonic scanners.
not a form of energy transmission.
Andrew Blucher
June 8, 2023 at 4:48 am
What could possibly go wrong?
Could it possibly be misused?
Sigh.
PonyCar Resurrection
June 8, 2023 at 8:21 am
The AI will take care of all of this. We don’t need thinkers or creators any more. If the AI wants us to have wireless energy, then it will provide it. All worship the great AI and its robot minions.
Automated Dude
June 8, 2023 at 10:22 am
Good speech!
Jevon Hamm
June 8, 2023 at 11:09 am
Damn deathstars really might be inevitable maybe not a start but a big panel with the ability to blast energy to earth is nuts good luck not having the governments of the world against this
tiefensucht
June 8, 2023 at 11:14 am
Isn’t it waaaaaay cheaper and easier to put solar panels in the deserts and convert the energy to methane? That he doesn’t show any data makes this also not very convincing.
punkdigerati
June 8, 2023 at 12:14 pm
RF is just a subset of the electromagnetic spectrum, the carrier wave/particle of which is the photon. This is just more complicated solar. It needs a serious cost/benefit analysis versus other forms of solar energy.
I suspect that the cost of development of the technology, testing, and deployment to space would be a greater cost than deploying ground based solar for the same energy collected.
Ved Joshi
June 8, 2023 at 12:51 pm
yes the cost of development is greater, but the lifetime energy capture is also greater
Muslimbek Vosidiy
June 8, 2023 at 12:17 pm
This guy doesn’t know anything about electrical engineering. Wasting people’s time by telling his fantasy
Muslimbek Vosidiy
June 8, 2023 at 12:19 pm
BIG DISLIKE
Ratna Rani Chowdhury
June 8, 2023 at 1:04 pm
The idea and technology is really so great ….🎉
Sukumar Murugan
June 8, 2023 at 1:05 pm
Brilliance of Hardwork and Intelligence 🏆 The Rise of Technology
Madlion
June 8, 2023 at 2:53 pm
Amazing, so many things are limited by battery time today, especially drones, imagine a plugged in station beaming power to the drone to fly over long distances. Or that all mobile phones will auto charge via a station at home, no nees to put down
Overwound Games
June 8, 2023 at 4:03 pm
yeah, let’s collect energy from an even larger area of space and concentrate it in the same volume, can’t think why that could be a long term problem…
Watts Humphrey
June 8, 2023 at 9:01 pm
Last time I looked at available tech here (some years back…), getting the material to space and assembling it, collecting energy, and beaming it to earth were not the biggest challenges; it was that the energy densities of the beam had to be kept very low so it doesn’t fry things on earth (that was with microwaves…).
At that look, with beam energy densities held below “allowable” limits for human and other exposure, you would need huge antennas on earth to generate significant power. Don’t recall sizes, think was many square miles at minimum — but conclusion then: just put your solar panels in the same space on the ground in sunny places and pump into the grid.
Will need to look further at this to see what their idea is.
Beyond that, what looks new and different here is the phased arrays of PV chips and the ability to actively direct beam direction and focal distance. That is cool