The Japanese engineering giant Mitsubishi has succeeded in transmitting energy wirelessly. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) announced that it had wirelessly powered LED lights by transmitting a 10-kilowatt microwave through the air to a receiver 500 meters away.
The Tokyo-based company is not the first to transmit energy without cables. A day before Mitsubishi's big announcement, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said it had successfully sent 1.8 kilowatts 55 meters through the air. But MHI is the first to have transmitted such a large amount - enough to run a set of conventional kitchen appliances - over such a long distance.
Mitsubishi says it plans to send solar cell-covered satellites into orbit 36,000 kilometers above the Earth's surface. The cosmic power-generation plants will convert the solar energy into microwaves and beam it down to so-called rectenna receiving stations on the ground. A rectenna is a special antenna that can convert microwave energy into electricity. Mitsubishi says it aims to commercialize its Space Solar Power System (SSPS) by 2030.
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