The Future of Electricity

Electricity has become a part of our daily lives. Brewing coffee, turning on the lights, charging your phone, streaming music — all of these require electricity. But man, why does the cord have to be so short?
Don’t get me wrong, I love it when my phone is charged — but is there a way that I can charge my things without being permanently attached to the wall?
Let’s be clear that having limited mobility while charging a device is a very small inconvenience. One of the main concerns surrounding electric cars is “they might run out of charge when going on a night drive”.

When most people hear the phrase wireless electricity they probably think of charging pads for your phone. However, wireless electricity is much bigger than that. Imagine being able to charge your phone without is being plugged in, much less even seeing the charger in your field of vision. In the next few years, the technology behind this phenomenon is going to improve exponentially and create a way that many of the world’s problems can be solved.

The Current Problem

In developing countries, billions of people do not have access to electricity. Not having access to electricity severely diminishes a person’s ability to innovate and make an income. This increases the income inequality gap and makes it harder for people to succeed. Wireless electricity can bridge this gap and connect the world. The World Bank states that countries in Africa have annual outages from 50 hours to 4,600 hours. This can be more than half of the year for some people. Electricity is not a right but is a treasured commodity in some parts of the world.

Progress has been very slow. Since 2013 the number of Africans without electricity has gone from 610 million to 595 million. In 2013 roughly a quarter of Kenyans had access to electricity; today three-quarters do. Poverty is part of the problem. 40% of Africans live on less than $2 a day. The IEA report notes that paying for the electricity needed to power a few basic appliances would take a significant part of a resident’s income. Rural areas are hit harder. In rural places, the figure is closer to one-quarter. The annual consumption of electricity is 518 KWh in Africa. This is the same amount of electricity used by an individual in an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD — example is the U.S.) country in 25 days.

Chart from Brookings.edu

How Beacon Electricity Is Solving This

At Beacon, our goal is to develop Nikola Tesla’s vision of a world using only wireless electrical towers. We will use this to give cheaper, accessible electricity to developing countries without the costs that come with a traditional electric grid. To start our team will find areas in the third world that do not have much access to electricity. Beacon sets up the electrical tower and distributes receivers among accessible households. These are then equipped with electromagnetic resonance transmitters that can supply electricity to nearby houses. This system can be expanded and grown until everyone is connected.

We plan to implement this system in the first world first to raise capital and test the technology. Orders will be available on our website and be on a citywide as well as on an individual basis. This will be much cheaper than traditional methods due to the implementations listed below. The average electric bill in the US is around $112. We believe that using wireless electricity we can make an electric bill 10 percent of that. Once we have raised enough capital we will move to the third world.

The Technology Behind This

Our infrastructure will be based on a relatively new field in wireless electricity called magnetic resonance. We will use both far-field, radiative techniques, and near field, not radiative techniques. In far-field power is transferred with electromagnetic radiation. This technique uses receivers to move electricity. Each receiver gets electricity and gives it to the next one. This method can transport electricity long distances, however, electrical towers must be aimed at receivers. Power transported with near field is transported over short distances using magnetic induction using inductive coupling between coils. This technology will be widespread throughout communities so that neighboring houses only need a receiver and they will be able to draw in power! Our company will use a combination of both, the initial power plant will send out far-field beams to homes and then each home can be equipped with a far or near field transmitter based on its surrounding houses also purchasing electricity. Our company will use a combination of both, the initial power plant will send out far-field beams to homes and then each home can be equipped with a far or near field transmitter based on its surrounding houses also purchasing electricity.

Far Field Transmission

Near Field Transmission

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Conclusion

All in all, the future of electricity is being created right in front of us. We are taking advantage of it and using it to create a world where everyone has access to power. If you are interested in wireless electricity some other interesting startups are WiLight Technologies and Spansive.

Wait! Don’t leave yet!

Here are the project’s cofounders and their LinkedIn.

Krish Lulla: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krish-lulla-8237a3193/

Sahas Suri: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sahas-suri-900a28192/

Nidhi Jadhav: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nidhii-jadhav/

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My name is Anisha Musti. I’m 14 years old and passionate about quantum computing and artificial intelligence. Thank you for reading and I hope you learned something! Stay up to date for more articles on quantum computing, AI, and other interesting technologies.

Connect with me on LinkedIn here and email me at anisha.musti@gmail.com for any inquiries.