this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
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Oh absolutely but if you've got a way to reduce weight and that's what you need in aircraft then anything that helps will make a huge difference. Also means if anything fails you still have backup power.
Electricity already costs nothing in some places. Solar panels and windows turbines gave to be turned off quite often.
We are literally wasting power because it's financially prudent. Free power is bad for power companies. They paid to be able to sell at a price and if the sun is shining the wind is blowing they can't make money.
If you had planes flying over Nevada or hot arid regions they could waste megawatts of power throwing it at planes. Yeah it's inefficient but so are big heavy batteries. Or we keep using horrific jet fuel and eventually we will kill ourselves and the planet.
I know which one I'd pick.
Better batteries can be coupled with power over the air. It doesn't need to charge it just needs to slow the rate of discharge down. It's a novel idea.
Honestly I mostly want it for my phone. Again I don't need much power just enough to get my phone from 8am to 10pm without plugging in.
Several companies are in the running but ossia and energous are the ones with products. Once apple or Google incorporate into their devices it's a done deal.
It's a waste of energy as it's inefficient but we waste energy all the time.
Yeah but it's just a matter of scale of that waste. Sending power over that much air for practical air travel would be something we could think about after we have all our energy problems totally solved, but transitioning our planes to electric is a more pressing concern than that for many reasons. Solar panels are great and getting better all the time, but it isn't nothing to produce them or we would already have all we need to stop using fossil fuels.
I'm hoping for batteries power-dense enough that weight concerns aren't far from liquid fuel, and a charging time similarly on par. Only for now are our batteries so "big and heavy".
Phones are a great application for power over air, very practical. But no matter how good it gets, even if it charges in your pocket from a hidden source under your feet as you walk down the sidewalk... I bet you want it to have a pretty good battery too.