The Future of Energy

If you had not already heard, the way you get electricity will be revolutionized within the next decade. Imagine a world without cords, or those ugly power lines. Think of a world where all you need to do is turn something on (from anywhere), and it would power up.

Yes, that future is very much possible and it is only just around the corner. Its called wireless electricity, and even though its limited, it has the potential to completely change our lives.

The technology began with Tesla, more than 100 years ago, but was short-lived. He had erected towers that could conduct electricity for the area around it, but the experiment was a disaster, with 100ft long electric bolts shooting out all over the place, turning the area into an electric storm.

100 years later, technology finally seems capable of making wireless electricity possible. WiTricity, one of the companies at the forefront of this, has a product that can power a whole room. WiTricity depends on magnetic resonance, (think of acoustic resonance, and how an opera singer can shatter glass from all the way on the other side of the opera room) but what I want to discuss with you is a more efficient means to power our lives.

It is the Sun.

More energy from the Sun hits the Earth in an hour than the entire world would ever use in a year. Our energy needs would be solved for eternity.

Currently, solar energy is inefficient. Solar panels absorb a very small fraction of that energy, and the system is not as robust as electricity or natural gas to power every household.

An idea has been put forth to instead put solar panels in space to absorb sunlight directly from the Sun and then beam it down to Earth. Anything in the path of that beam could receive the signal and in turn, power. Small scale experiments have been successful, and organizations like NASDA, the NSSO, and Space Energy Inc. have all announced plans to get solar energy plants in space by the next decade.

If we want to be an adavanced, high-tech civilization, we need to start looking for high-tech ways to fuel our energy needs instead of relying on old, primitive technology.