Energy: can this revolutionary technology soon replace electricity pylons?

Anicet Mbida edited by Gauthier Delomez 3:30 p.m., March 11, 2023

Will electricity pylons along the roads soon be on the way out?

A system being tested at this very moment on a large scale in New Zealand and Germany could get the better of these infrastructures which somewhat distort the landscape.

In these two countries, companies are seeking to replace all the large pylons of the high voltage lines with two small antennas which transmit the same quantity of electricity, but using radio waves.

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Among these two small antennas, there is a transmitter and a receiver which are separated by five, ten, 20 kilometers or more.

Transmit electricity over tens of kilometers

Concretely, this technology would make it possible to transmit electricity wirelessly over tens of kilometers by relying on a very concentrated beam of radio waves between the two antennas.

For this to work, they must therefore be in the same line of sight.

If it is a technique that has been mastered for a long time (among the military, in particular), until now, we had never managed to exploit it profitably. 

This is apparently what EmRob, a New Zealand startup, has managed to do.

Moreover, its employees are now working with the European Space Agency (ESA) because installing their technology on satellites would make it possible to build solar power plants in space, and therefore to have solar panels that give their full output 24 hours a day to easily return the energy to Earth.

Ecological and economic advantages, but a risk for our health?

This system has many advantages.

It is first of all more ecological: if it were to become more democratic, there would no longer be any need to crack the forests to repatriate the electricity from the power stations.

It is also more economical when it is necessary to bring power to isolated places, such as high mountains, open countryside or from wind turbines installed on the high seas, for example.

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However, does this technology pose risks to our health?

A priori, if we only stay a few seconds, nothing would happen.

It would still start to heat up after a few minutes, but only a degree or two.

This is why, in principle, this system would be less dangerous than current high-voltage lines.

If it will still be necessary to check this technology which is based on waves, it remains promising if it were to work.