Power Beaming Overview

Laser Power Beaming is a way to send electrical power to a remote receiver without wires.  There are many forms of wireless power transmission.  Laser Power Beaming works much like solar energy systems which  generate electricity from solar cells using sunlight, but instead it uses specialized photovoltaic cells to convert laser light into electricity.

The Laser Power Beaming system starts with a laser running from a power supply which plugs into a standard industrial electrical outlet.  The laser light is shaped by a set of optics to define the beam size at its destination.  This light then propagates through air or the vacuum of space until it reaches the photovoltaic (PV) receiver.  This array of PV cells then converts the light back into electricity.

Electrical power is traditionally transmitted using wires (usually made of copper).  But electrical power lines are expensive to install ($20,000 or more per mile for low power residential lines, and $250,000 or more per mile for high-voltage transmission lines), can require significant time before an installation is completed, could fail at any point along their entire length and can not be moved to a different destination once installed.  Perhaps most importantly, though, there are many places where electrical power lines are impractical (for example, to an aerial vehicle) or uneconomical (for example, to distant, remote locations).

Laser Power Beaming, on the other hand, only requires physical installations at the transmitting and receiving points, and nothing in between.  The receiver can be moved to a different location, closer or further away, without changing the cost of the system.  And power can be available as soon as the elements are placed and turned on, instead of having to wait for wires to be buried or hung from poles.