Every day, Anicet Mbida makes us discover an innovation that could well change the way we consume. This Wednesday, a wireless electricity transmission system is currently being tested in Australia. The current is sent from the central by a beam of waves. No more risk of blackouts in stormy weather.
This Wednesday morning, Anicet Mbida announces the end of the electric pylons at the edge of the roads. After having buried the cables, we will now transmit electricity wirelessly.
It is a system currently being tested on a large scale in New Zealand. The idea is quite simply to replace all the large pylons of the high voltage lines by two small antennas (one transmitter, one receiver), separated by 5, 10, 20 kilometers; which transmit the same amount of electricity, but by radio waves.
This offers a lot of advantages. It is more ecological, there will no longer be any need to crack the forests to repatriate electricity from the power stations. It is also less expensive when it is necessary to bring current in isolated places: high mountain, open countryside or from wind turbines on the high seas.
How do we manage to transmit electricity wirelessly over tens of kilometers?
By using a very concentrated radio wave beam between the two antennas. So they have to be right in the same line of sight.
It is a technique that we have mastered for a long time, in the military in particular. But until now, we had never managed to exploit it profitably. And that's apparently what Emrob, a New Zealand startup, has managed to do.
And there are no risks? What happens if a bird or someone crosses the beam of waves?
A priori, if we stay a few seconds, nothing would happen. It would start to heat up after a few minutes, but only a degree or two. So it would be less dangerous than a high voltage line. To be verified, of course, with all the paranoia that there is today around the airwaves, but it is very promising.