Dr Automotive Design and Tools

Using wireless technology similar to that available in an electric toothbrush, Google is trialing a Plugless Power™ charging station for electric vehicles at its Mountain View, Calif. headquarters. Plugless Power is the first electric vehicle (EV) charging system on the market to offer consumers a simple way to charge their EVs with the ease of hands-free, automatic technology.

Developed by Evatran™, LLC, Plugless Power is based on inductive technology, which has been used in electrical transformers for more than 100 years, and streamlines the charging of electric vehicles and extended-range hybrids by eliminating the nuisance of the cord and the plug.

“We are thrilled to have our first public release of the Plugless Power technology installed at Google’s headquarters,” said Tom Hough, co-founder and CEO of Plugless Power. “The interest shown by Google and the cooperation we’ve received to retrofit their EV provides evidence that a simple, convenient charging process is needed for the widespread adoption of electric vehicles.”

Google has multiple low-speed electric vehicles for short-range travel around its campus and includes plug-in vehicles in its on-campus employee car-sharing program. The company will initially use the Plugless Power station to charge a retrofitted short-range electric vehicle. Google showed interest in testing the Plugless Power technology and understanding how its features could simplify the charging process for its plug-in EV fleet vehicles.

According to Hough, this first public installation is an important step in bringing the technology to commercial customers, and Evatran is actively seeking other fleet trial opportunities with corporations and municipalities to experience the Plugless Power technology in the third quarter of 2011. Most EV models are eligible for Plugless Power through a simple retrofit process. In addition to fleet distribution, Evatran is currently working with automotive manufacturers to integrate the Plugless Power technology into mass-market EVs by 2012.

SAE has launched a taskforce (SAE J2954) on the “Wireless Charging of Electric and Plug-in Electric Vehicles”—i.e. EVs and PHEVs. The taskforce, which launched in October 2010 and began meeting in November 2010, has a goal of delivering the first SAE guideline by end of 2011 for publishing in 2012. Since additional field data is needed for standardization, said Jesse Schneider of BMW, leader of the J2954 effort, a 2012-13 date is estimated for the balloted standard.

The taskforce goal is to establish performance and safety limits for wireless power transfer for automotive applications while establishing a minimum interoperability requirement. The team is currently reviewing the state of the art of wireless charging (e.g., inductive, magnetic resonance) and compiling an interoperability study.

Currently, SAE 1773 defines a standard for EV inductive coupled charging. The standard was based upon specific hardware (paddle charger); vehicle-station bidirectional communication was either RF or IrDA. SAE 1772 specifies a conductive charge coupler standard that is not compatible to ISO standard in Europe.

Standard charging could be in the up to ~4 kW range, Schneider says, with more possible for some passenger vehicles and up to 60 kW Level 3 fast charging for some vehicles (e.g., buses). Passenger vehicles could be wirelessly charged during work, parking garage, home use, similar to conductive charging (such as SAE 1772) at a higher power level, with vehicle approval.

Source: SAE

The future is definitely going to be wireless, and not just when it comes to data. eCoupled has been figuring out ways to power and charge all of your stuff without wires, from cell phones to laptops to Tesla Roadsters.

eCoupled uses what are called induction coils to transfer power between two surfaces without wires. The coils are thin enough that they can be built directly into cases and batteries, and if you've seen wireless chargers from Energizer, they've got eCoupled tech inside.

At CES, Fulton Innovation is displaying a bunch of different ways that their eCoupled inductive technology will make our lives tangle-free in the near future. Laptops and cell phones that power and charge wirelessly using built-in coils are just one aspect of what's possible. eCoupled also has tables and counter tops that provide power directly to things like blenders, and the coils are cheap enough that you can build them into cereal boxes and soup cans to get them to light up and heat themselves.

They've also managed to build an inductive receiver into a Tesla Roadster, which was happily charging in the middle of their booth. Their wireless system is about 90% as efficient as charging with a plug, and is luckily smart enough to shut itself off if your cat crawls under the car, although eCoupled promises that the magnetic fields aren't dangerous. The whole thing is controlled with an iPhone app.

Since the costs of installing a wireless power transmitter are comparable to a standard charging station, eCoupled is hoping that cities and businesses will start installing chargers in parking spots to entice all those electric cars out there to stop in for a quick charge.

A road-embedded recharger developed by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology was picked as one of the 50 Best Inventions of 2010 by Time magazine.

The U.S. weekly on Thursday released its list of this year's biggest breakthroughs in 10 categories of science, technology and the arts

KAIST's wireless power supply strips are embedded in roadbeds to transfer energy to battery-powered electric vehicles running above. A prototype is now in service at the Seoul Grand Park in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province.

Also on the list are the Apple iPad and Google's driverless car, as well as an English-teaching robot developed by the Korea Institute of Science and Technology.

The next generation of electric cars could be charged wirelessly and even powered up as they drive over electrified roads, claims a company backed by engineering giant Arup.

The company, HaloIPT, is the first in the world to bring to market IPT (Inductive Power Transfer) technology which allows cars fitted with a receiver pad to charge automatically when parked over transmitter pads buried into the ground.

IPT systems can also be configured to power all road-based vehicles from small city cars to heavy-goods vehicles and buses.

The technology was launched overnight in London. The first car to be powered with HaloIPT technology will be on display in London until the end of November.

Dr Anthony Thomson, CEO of HaloIPT says the wireless charging pads are designed to function beneath asphalt, submerged in water or covered in ice and snow.

In the future, the technology will be able to be embedded in roads so cars can be charged on the move. This will solve the range issues electric vehicles have and reduce battery size requirements, says Dr Thompson.

Their pioneering technology uses magnetic fields to transfer power instead of cables or brushes.

The IPT technology was developed by The University of Auckland's Power Electronics Group. The group is led by electrical engineers Professor John Boys and Associate Professor Grant Covic from the Faculty of Engineering at the University.

Dr Boys says it was an exciting development and pleasing to see research originally developed in the basement of the Engineering Faculty at the University of Auckland more than 20 years ago (1989) now making it on to the international stage.

HaloIPT

Guardian

Car makers are signaling their interest in wireless charging as another piece of the digital cockpit.

In one sign of the road ahead a General Motors executive is chairing a standards effort that hopes to set interoperability standards for the magnetic induction approach. Toyota and Ford managers said they also are interested in the technology and the standards effort.

"I am motivated by the possibility that wireless charging provides drivers convenience and aesthetics," said John Suh who manages an advanced technology office for GM in Silicon Valley and chairs the standards group launched in May by the Consumer Electronics Association.

The CEA effort aims to set a baseline for interoperability for chargers using magnetic coupling. One spec will target connections of less than one centimeter from coil to coil, another will address a two to six centimeter distance. The group will meet here Friday.

The group will also try to define power efficiency and standard nomenclature for different technical approaches. The committee will "look at all the technologies that could provide wireless charging--optical, RF and conductive as well as inductive approaches--. they all provide some benefit, Suh said.

Wireless charging "is in an advanced engineering stage and out of research" at Ford, said John Schneider, a chief engineer at Ford, speaking on a panel at the annual CEA Industry Forum. "We are watching to see if the standards are successful--that’s key," but the company has yet to choose a technology, said Schneider.

Car makers are still working through the costs and use cases for wireless charging, given users often keep mobile devices in a pocket or scharge gadgets overnight at home.

"Wireless charging has not factored in the top ten [in Toyota's user surveys, raher] it's been one of the bottom features people are willing to pay for," said Jon Bucci, a vice president of advanced technology at Toyota. Nevertheless, "our product planners are looking at [wireless charging] deeply," he said.

"The use cases and value is still to be proven," agreed Schneider of Ford. Almost as important, he asked "will Apple support it because unless Apple supports it" it won't be used on millions of iPhones and iPods, he said.

Despite the doubts, wireless charging could be the next step in smartphone services and apps car makers are racing to link to their vehicles. Last year, Ford released a set of APIs to link to its car controls smartphone services like Pandora.

"There will be a Toyota announcement along these lines at CES," said Bucci of Toyota.
In a CES keynote, Ford is also expected to announce more details about its future infotianment systems.

The Chevy Volt to be released in November lets users unlock, start and turn on air conditioning or heat remotely from a smartphone. "These sorts of features will roll out across our other vehicles," said Suh.

Powercast Corporation today announced its TX91501 Powercaster(TM) Wireless Power Transmitter which uses the 915-MHz ISM band to transmit common radio waves for power and data in commercial, industrial and defense applications.

As the power source for Powercast's RF energy-harvesting wireless power solution, the TX91501 broadcasts power and data over 40 feet to its companion Powerharvester(R) receivers. Embedded into micro-power devices such as wireless sensors, instrumentation and controls, the Powerharvester receivers convert the received RF energy into DC power for battery-free operation or to wirelessly trickle charge batteries. The receivers also output the data broadcast from the TX91501 as well as the received signal strength indication (RSSI).

Initial versions of the TX91501 transmitter will broadcast a unique ID for device authentication or location-tracking applications, while future versions will also transmit data such as timestamps for end-device synchronization and control.

Powercast's TX91501 transmitter is approved by the FCC (Part 15) and Industry Canada. It can be used to broadcast RF energy for both power and data in numerous energy-harvesting applications such as environmental monitoring, building automation, energy management and industrial monitoring.

The RF signal uses Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) modulation for power and Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK) modulation for data. The TX91501 is available in versions with an output of 1 watt or 3 watts Effective Isotropic Radiated Power (EIRP).

The 6.75" H x 6.25" W x 1.63" D transmitter includes an integrated 8dBi directional antenna with a 60-degree beam pattern, and the unit mounts easily on either vertical or horizontal surfaces using one of two DC power jacks (bottom or back) and multiple mounting holes. The TX91501 operates immediately when powered on and requires no user configuration or programming. An internal shut-off mechanism automatically stops transmission when objects come close to the device, and an LED indicates transmission status.

Broadcasted RF energy creates a perpetual power source, unlike potentially unreliable solar, heat or vibration energy sources, to provide power-over-distance, one-to-many charging, and controllable wireless power (continuous, scheduled or on-demand). A wire- and battery-free power source enables zero-maintenance devices which deploy to inaccessible locations, and embeds within sealed devices for use in wet or harsh environments.

While a 3 watts wireless power system isn't suitable for an application like EV battery charging, it is interesting to consider the increasing potential of this technology as it scales up in power capacity.

The 1-watt ($235) and 3-watt ($300) versions of the TX91501 Powercaster transmitter are available through Powercast's authorized distributors.

Fourteen students from the University of Karlsruhe, technology and industry have come up with an electric car that runs only with wireless power transmission. Christened as e-Quickie, the three wheeled car resembles a reclining bicycle with a driver capsule.

The interesting thing about the vehicle is it doesn’t get start by the batteries but by leaving the energy conductors on the ground.

The vehicle gets its energy from electric conducting paths on the ground. Receivers underneath the car take energy from the tracks through electric induction, directing it onward to the car’s electrical hub drive.

This is similar to systems being developed by Korea advanced institute of science and technology (KAIST) and Ingenieurgesellschaft Auto und Verkehr (IAV)

All the individual components of the car including its steering, breaks and chassis are designed by the students from high-tech materials. Apart from these, e-Quickie’s shell that plays a central role in the vehicle’s weight and aerodynamics is made from the carbon fiber to ensure the optimal mobility.

The total weight of the car is 60kg, which, as per the project director, can be reduced to 40kg. The car is powered by a 2kw motor but achieves a top speed of 50 km/h. The batteries serve as a buffer, therefore they are much smaller than by electric cars, from which they draw energy exclusively.

Solar Driver


.

Fujitsu Laboratories Limited today announced the development of wireless recharging technology that enables the design of magnetic resonance-based wireless charging systems that can simultaneously recharge various types of portable electronic devices.

This technology not only promises more compact and more efficient power transmitters and receivers, it also offers the ability to design charging systems in 1/150th the time currently required. In addition to dramatically shortening development times, this technology paves the way to integrating compact wireless charging functions into mobile phones and enabling multiple portable devices to be charged simultaneously without any restrictions on their position with respect to the charger.

Details of this technology are being presented at the 2010 conference of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers (IEICE), opening September 14 at Osaka Prefecture University.

Background

Wireless charging has become an increasingly desirable technology in recent years, as people are eager to avoid the clutter and inconvenience of using power cables to recharge their mobile phones, digital cameras, notebook computers, and other portable electronics.

Electromagnetic induction and magnetic resonance are the methods most often used for wireless charging. With electromagnetic induction, a magnetic flux is induced between the power-transmitting and power-receiving coils, and operates based on electromotive force. This method has been used in cordless phones, among other equipment. The drawbacks are that the method only works over short distances, and the power transmitter and power receiver need to be in alignment, so it is effectively no different than using a charging station with a wired connection.

By contrast, the magnetic resonance method, which was first proposed in 2006, uses a coil and capacitor as a resonator, transmitting electricity through the magnetic resonance between the power transmitter and power receiver. This method can transmit electricity over a range of up to several meters, and because a single transmitter can power multiple receiving devices, developments are under way for a broad range of potential applications, charging everything from portable electronics to electric cars.

Technological Issues

When designing transmitters and receivers for use with magnetic resonance charging, the size of the device determines the size of the coil, and this, in turn, determines the optimal capacitor capacitance. The effects of stray capacitance, which depends on the shapes of the transmitting and receiving coils, and other forces, such as magnetism in the device's chassis or batteries, exert complex influences over the resonance between the transmitter and receiver. Untangling these influences and resolving them in the design phase takes a significant amount of time. Using a high-end personal computer, just the basic design for a transmitter and receiver can take roughly 24 hours, and the smaller the devices are, the more difficult the computations. This has made magnetic-resonance charging impractical to incorporate into mobile phones, where miniaturized transmitters and receivers are highly prone to external influences.

Furthermore, charging multiple different devices at the same time brings a different set of influences for each device, and analyzing these complex influences has been extremely difficult. Implementing wireless charging for compact portable electronics that require complex designs has been slowed mainly by the technological problems associated with design and analysis.

The Newly Developed Technology

What Fujitsu Laboratories has done is to develop technology that dramatically shortens the time required to design transmitters and receivers for magnetic resonance charging systems and, in addition, enables accurate tuning of resonant conditions in the design phase, even for compact transmitters and receivers that are prone to influences from nearby metallic and magnetic objects.

The new technology has the following characteristics:

1. A magnetic field analysis simulator which analyzes the coil model and a specialized circuit simulator which analyzes the resonance conditions, including the capacitor model, are combined, making it possible to quickly and accurately design wireless charging systems for multiple transmitters and receivers at once using a variety of coil sizes.

2. The design of the wireless charging system can be automated to precisely match the desired resonance requirements, based on an assessment function which maximizes the charging efficiency.

Together, these two technologies represent the world's first practical magnetic resonance design simulator which enables rapid and precise designs for transmitters and receivers according to the desired resonance requirements.

Results

This analysis and design technology was used to design a compact, slim power receiver, and to manufacture prototype mobile phones with built-in wireless charging. The prototype mobile phones can charge anywhere within the power-transmitter's range, regardless of their position in reference to the transmitter, with 85% efficiency.

Charging performance varies with changes in the size of the transmitter's coil in an analysis of the simultaneous charging of multiple devices, where a single transmitter was transmitting to three receivers. This analysis, which found the optimal coil size for efficiently charging three devices, took roughly 10 minutes, or 1/150th the time it had taken before. Even with multiple transmitters and receivers, the design time is dramatically reduced.

Future Development Plans

Fujitsu plans to continue using this analysis and design technology in research and development on wireless charging systems for mobile phones and other portable devices, and plans to bring products using it to market in 2012. The company is also looking at applying the results of this work to fields other than portable electronics, including power transmission between circuit boards or computer chips, and providing mobile charging systems for electric cars.

LaserMotive has used a few watts of laser power to keep a 22-gram model helicopter hovering for hours at a time, thus adding to numerous other feats attained with the use of lasers. Though, there are many applications the technology like this could be used for, but LaserMotive’s prime concern is to power space elevators to lift objects into orbit. The traditional UAVs require a lot of power from batteries and fuel, and because solar-powered aircrafts too have limitations in staying afloat for a very long time, this ground-based laser propulsion technology could provide the power to enhance the time in air.

To demonstrate this laser power, LasesMotive at AUVSI Unmanned Systems Conference in Denver, Colorado, “focused light from an array of semiconductor diode near-infrared lasers down to a 7-centimetre beam, which automatically tracked a modified radio-controlled helicopter. The aircraft carried photovoltaic cells optimised for the laser wavelength, which converted about half the laser power reaching them to generate a few watts of electricity – enough to power the rotors of the little copter.”

New Scientist

.

Scientists in Japan have successfully "launched" a tiny metal rocket using an unusual source of thrust - microwaves. The test was the latest a proof of principle for a kind of propulsion that has never been the beneficiary of the levels of investment poured into traditional chemical rockets, but which its proponents say could some day be a superior way to get spacecraft into orbit.

Sending rockets into space using a combustible mixture of on-board fuel isn't an optimal solution to the problem of escaping Earth's deep gravity well. Not only is it dangerous to strap humans and satellites on top of giant bombs, it's also incredibly wasteful: 90% of the weight of a rocket sitting on the launch pad is fuel. For example, the Space Shuttle burns 50% of it's lift off weight within the first minute of flight.

In the beginning of the 20th century, it occurred to Russian rocket scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky that there was another way: by keeping the energy source on the ground and beaming the required power to a rocket, it could be launched with very little fuel on board.

With the invention of the maser, or microwave laser, scientists were granted a tool to realize Tsiolkovsky's dream. So in the 1970's they began to model just what it would take. Some were optimistic about its potential to decrease the cost of going to orbit by orders of magnitude, but the bottom line is that, for a lack of funding, the technology never took off.

Every few years, however, someone reminds the world that it's at least possible to get a rocket off the ground with little or no fuel. The latest demonstration used a Gyrotron - essentially a maser - at the Naka Fusion Institute of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency. (This super high-powered microwave beam emitter was originally developed as part of Japan's contribution to ITER, the international effort to create a workable fusion reactor.)

Using this beam, the scientists were able to send pulses of microwave energy into the bottom of their hollow 126 gram rocket model, heating the air within to 10,000 degrees Celsius and resulting in its rapid expansion. The result is a little boom, "like thunder," they report.


.

Nearly 235 million electronics devices with wireless charging capability are projected to ship in 2014, a 65-fold increase from the 3.6 million expected to ship this year, according to a forecast by market research firm iSuppli Corp.

ISuppli (El Segundo, Calif.) predicts that a flood of electronic products with wireless charging capability will hit the market in coming years, giving users a break from the myriad of tangled cords used to repower electronic gadgets like mobile phones, notebook PCs, digital cameras and others.

The firm defines product-specific wireless charging systems as those consisting of a charger as well as a so-called "skin" or receiver sold for specific devices. These product-specific devices contrast with aftermarket solutions, which comprise universal chargers and various skins that can be utilized with multiple consumer electronics, according to iSuppli.

"While a number of serious challenges continue to present barriers to immediate wide adoption, wireless chargers will start shipping in meaningful volume this year and then quickly ramp up as the devices achieve greater market acceptance," said Tina Teng, senior analyst for wireless research at iSuppli, in a statement.

Among the challenges that need to be overcome, Teng stressed that manufacturers need to consider how to integrate wireless charging into the design of printed circuit boards. Significant adoption of wireless charging technology will be needed to drive down costs, she said.

Teng predicted that wireless charging devices would over the next five years find their way into an increasing number of applications, particularly in mobile phones.

Of the four current wireless charging technologies in place today, magnetic inductive is the most widely adopted, according to iSuppli. Based on the principle of electromagnetic induction, in which current generated from the induced magnetic field in the receiver coil is used to charge devices, the technology enjoys wide support from semiconductor vendors, device manufacturers, accessories makers as well as retailers, according to the firm.

The most successful proponent of magnetic induction is Powermat Inc., a Michigan-based company founded in 2009 that also owned 62 percent share of the wireless charging market in 2009, according to iSuppli.

ISuppli also predicts growth for aftermarket wireless charging, with revenue rising at a massive five-year compound annual growth rate of 133.4 percent, according to the firm.

Dreams are free as the old saying goes. This one sounds about as realistic as planning to build a full scale copy of the Death Star.

Japanese construction firm Shimizu Corporation wants to build a 400 km wide, 11,000 km long belt of PV solar panels around the equator of the moon and plan to transmit the power back to earth wirelessly via a network of 20 km diameter antenna.

Using Robots tele-operated from Earth 24 hours a day, Shimizu say they can make everything from Oxygen and water through concrete and the solar cells themselves from Lunar soil.

This project is even more fantastic than the Japanese plan to build a 1000 MW solar satellite by 2030, despite the fact such an array is 8000 times the size of the solar array on the International Space Station and Japan haven't even managed manned space flight yet with their own space vehicles.




The only problem we have with any of this is that wireless power transmission using RF has not been proven at any distance over 1 mile. To transmit power from geostationary orbit a wireless power transmission system must be energy efficient over 35,299 km (22,000 miles)! From the Moon we're talking 384,403 km (238,857 miles).

Japanese researchers are also considering laser power transmission but laser signals are almost completely blocked by cloud cover and again this technology is untested for long distance power transmission.

Radio and Laser signals suffer from free-space path loss, which is proportional to the square of the distance between the transmitter and receiver and is also proportional to the square of the frequency of the radio signal.

A radio signal 'spreads out' when it leaves the antenna according to Inverse-square law. As much of that signal as possible has to be captured by the antenna aperture at the receiving end to achieve high efficiency. Any energy that spreads out and does not make it to the receiving antenna is considered a loss of efficiency.

Wireless power experiments to date have tired to get around these limits by using extremely focused antenna such as parabolic dishes and co-phased arrays at very close range. They still have yet to deal with loss due to distance as all such successful tests have only been conducted over a mile or less.

Where a conventional wire based long distance high voltage power transmission line is around 95% energy efficient, the longest distance wireless power transmission test to date, between two Hawaiian Islands 148 kms apart, had an efficiency of less than 1/1000th of 1%.

At this stage in time, the technology to do this simply does not exist.

THE DREAM

South Korea has introduced the world ' s first commercial wireless electric vehicle Tuesday at a theme park in Seoul, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said Tuesday.

The "On-line Electric Vehicle,"(OELV) which debuted at the Seoul Grand Park as one of its seven shuttles, charges its electricity from power strips built five centimeters underground, instead of rails or overhead wires, as it can recharge while running, becoming the world's first commercial vehicle to successfully utilize such technology, the Seoul City Hall said in a statement.

The OELVs don't require any recharge stations or batteries on the vehicle to run, saving time and space as well as production costs, it added, as it is becoming a very viable technology in the electric car industry.

It added, the OELVs carry batteries one-fifth the size of those currently used in other electric vehicles, but it is for emergency situations only.

The new technology was developed in cooperation with the state- funded (South) Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), who said Tuesday's announcement could be a groundbreaking discovery in the electric vehicle field, as a number of research institutions and labs have failed to produce similar results in the past.

The Seoul government said it expects to apply the new technology to city buses from as early as next year, following trial operations, with plans of switching all buses and taxis to ' green-cars' by 2020.

This Space Power idea is getting a real work out lately. Japan's space agency JAXA has announced it wants to collect solar power in space and zap it down to Earth, using laser beams or microwaves by 2030.

The Japanese government has just picked a group of companies and a team of researchers tasked with turning the ambitious, multi-billion-dollar dream of unlimited clean energy into reality in coming decades.

With few energy resources of its own and heavily reliant on oil imports, Japan has long been a leader in solar and other renewable energies and this year set ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets.

But Japan's boldest plan to date is the Space Solar Power System (SSPS), in which arrays of photovoltaic panels several square miles in size would hover in geostationary orbit outside the Earth's atmosphere.

"Since solar power is a clean and inexhaustible energy source, we believe that this system will be able to help solve the problems of energy shortage and global warming," researchers at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, one of the project participants, wrote in a report.

The solar cells would capture the solar energy, which is at least five times stronger in space than on Earth, and beam it down to the ground through clusters of lasers or microwaves.

Several space power announcements have been made by various companies within the last year but none have proved that the basic technology even exist. Sure spacecraft and communications satellites have been powered by solar cells since the start of the space race but the largest space based solar array built to date, on the International Space Station, generates only 120 Kw and it's construction required more than 10 Shuttle launches.

The Japanese researchers are targeting a 1 GW (gigawatt) system, equivalent to a medium-sized atomic power plant, or in the region of 8000 times the size of the ISS array, a fairly ambitious target considering the Japanese haven't even managed manned space flight yet.

The Japanese say the satellite would produce electricity at eight cents per kilowatt-hour, six times cheaper than its current cost in Japan. No details are provided on how that price was calculated.

The power would be collected by gigantic parabolic antennae, likely to be located in restricted areas at sea or on dam reservoirs, said Tadashige Takiya, a spokesman at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

The major show stopper for all these space based solar power proposals is that wireless power transmission has not been proven at any distance over 1 mile yet transmission of power from geostationary orbit must be energy efficient over 22,000 miles! Japanese researchers are also considering laser power transmission but laser signals are almost completely blocked by cloud cover and again this technology is untested for long distance power transmission.

Radio and Laser signals suffer from free-space path loss, which is proportional to the square of the distance between the transmitter and receiver and is also proportional to the square of the frequency of the radio signal.

A radio signal 'spreads out' when it leaves the antenna according to Inverse-square law and as much as possible has to be captured by the antenna aperture at the receiving end to achieve high efficiency. Any energy that spreads out and does not make it to the receiving antenna is considered a loss of efficiency.

Wireless power experiments to date have tired to get around these limits by using extremely focused antenna such as parabolic dishes and co-phased arrays at very close range but they still have yet to deal with loss due to distance as all such successful tests have only been over a mile or less.

Where a conventional long distance high voltage power transmission line is around 95% energy efficient, long distance wireless power transmission would be a small fraction of 1% efficient.

The challenge -- including transporting the components to space -- may appear gigantic, but Japan has been pursuing the project since 1998, with some 130 researchers studying it under JAXA's oversight.

Last month Japan's Economy and Trade Ministry and the Science Ministry took another step toward making the project a reality, by selecting several Japanese high-tech giants as participants in the project.

The consortium, named the Institute for Unmanned Space Experiment Free Flyer, also includes Mitsubishi Electric, NEC, Fujitsu and Sharp.

The project's roadmap outlined several steps that would need to be taken before a full-blown launch in 2030.

Within several years, "a satellite designed to test the transmission by microwave should be put into low orbit with a Japanese rocket," said Tatsuhito Fujita, one of the JAXA researchers heading the project.

The next step, expected around 2020, would be to launch and test a large flexible photovoltaic structure with 10 megawatt power capacity, to be followed by a 250 megawatt prototype.

This would help evaluate the project's financial viability, say officials. The final aim is to produce electricity cheap enough to compete with other alternative energy sources.

JAXA says the transmission technology would be safe but concedes it would have to convince the public, which may harbour images of laser beams shooting down from the sky, roasting birds or slicing up aircraft in mid-air.

According to a 2004 study by JAXA, the words 'laser' and 'microwave' caused the most concern among the 1,000 people questioned.

A German company is working on technology to fit roads with embedded induction-loops that can recharge EVs on the move, without the need for connectors or cords. The technology is similar to that being developed by researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) for the (OLEV), and is an extension of the wireless parking space recharging technology we have previously reported on. It is already being used in production plants and large warehouse facilities to both power and remotely direct robotic floor conveyor vehicles.

The company, Ingenieurgesellschaft Auto und Verkehr (IAV), claims that with their system transmission efficiency is around 90%. The system is sensitive to the distance between the road and the vehicle mounted antenna, so IAV suggest that the electric vehicles could employ active suspension and opto-electronic measurement techniques to automatically maintain the optimum distance. Perhaps having the antenna mounted on an inverted pentagram under the vehicle is the answer.

Because of high transmission efficiency only limited segments of road would need the network as EVs can receive a recharge on a main road, for example, then continue on their way on non-electrified roads powered by the now recharged vehicle battery.

IAV is confident that its electromagnetic induction technology will be developed to production-ready status in the next few years. A 1/28 scale model of the system is already “functioning perfectly” the company says, and construction of a demonstration section of “charging road,” and a full-scale test track, are in the planning stages in the German state of Lower Saxony.

A question remains regarding how to charge drivers for using the system. Burying the induction antenna under 'priority' lanes such as bus lanes or clearways and using the now familiar road tolling methods such as radio toll tag or license plate camera ID could be one solution matching vehicle identification with data recorded of how much current each vehicle draws off the grid.

As the induction system uses a simple insulated cable installed on the ground compared to the suspended overhead line system currently used on sections of electrified railway, we also see potential for this technology to provide a cheaper way to electrify rural and freight railways lines, eliminating the need for diesel locomotives.

Researchers at the Korea advanced institute of science and technology (KAIST) have developed a revolutionary electric vehicle that takes its power from cables beneath the road rather than relying on batteries.

The OLEV (online electric vehicle) project is to develop an entirely new concept: the electric vehicle picks up power from underground power supplier lines through the non-contact magnetic charging method, while either running or standing.

The system seems is a cross between inductive charging technology while the vehicle is parked that various companies including Nissan are looking to introduce and the Linear Motor EV Superhighway concept. Researchers have proved that up to 80 percent transmission efficiency is possible through a gap of 1 centimeter from the power line to the receiver on the vehicle and in July they successfully supplied power to a bus - up to 60 percent across a 12 cm gap from the power line embedded in the ground. Using power supply and pick-up devices they developed. In this process, KAIST has secured the core technologies for maximizing power efficiency and minimizing the cost of installing the non-contact power supply system.

Nissan are said to be developing an inductive wireless charging system for their soon to be launched five-seat Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) Electric Vehicle. The production version of the Nissan EV will get its official unveiling at the Tokyo Motor Show in October.

According to Larry Haddad, general manager of product strategy and planning at Nissan Europe, electromagnetic field technology can charge EVs in a compatible parking bay without the need for wires. Nissan has ambitions beyond mere wireless charging bays. It hopes to scale the technology up even further as a series of plates laid into the surface of designated electric vehicle lanes on our roads and motorways, theoretically enabling motorists to charge as they drive.

Nissan is grappling with its recent consumer research, which revealed that 61% of potential electric car customers were most worried about the inconvenience of recharging. As well as inductive charging, its technological solutions include developing fast-charging facilities, which they hope to see in place in shopping car parks and motorway service stations that can provide an 80% charge in as little as 25 minutes.

The ZEV will be the first "dedicated" electric car on the market, arguing that most rival cars have been rehashes of existing models. It is a five-seater family-sized car with a top speed of 90mph, a battery range of around 100 miles and impressive acceleration. The cars will be built so new, improved batteries can be retro-fitted.

Several companies have announced inductive wireless EV charging technology in resent weeks including WiTricity and Showa Aircraft Industry Co Ltd. No company has made mention of potential payment systems which has always been seen as a show stopper for wireless power. With the widespread use of short range radio based toll road tags having been adopted in many parts of the world over the last decade perhaps totally automated payment will be part of these wireless EV charging systems.

Showa Aircraft Industry Co Ltd have developed a contactless power supply system that is an electromagnetic induction type and can supply power even when two coils are placed adjacent to or 1m apart from each other.

The company exhibited it at AT International 2009, a trade show that is taking place from July 15 to 17, 2009, at Pacifico Yokohama in Yokohama City, Japan.

In an electromagnetic induction method, electric power is transferred between the primary and secondary coils. It can supply power from a distance of about 10cm but has some problems such as displacement in a horizontal direction and heat generation due to an invasion of a foreign substance.

Showa Aircraft Industry did not disclose the details because of patent-related issues. But the new system can have a transmission efficiency of 90% or more between coils that are set about 60cm apart from each other, the company said.

The system uses almost the same frequency as before but does not employ a resonance method. However, the transmission efficiency of the entire system including the power source is less than 50% because the system still uses, for example, a power supply device for laboratory use, Showa Aircraft Industry said.

The company had a demonstration of lighting ten 100W incandescent lamps using coils that are 60cm apart from each other. In addition, when a metal frying pan was placed between the coils, it did not heat up. The size of the coils was 50 x 50cm, and the thickness was about 5cm.

Showa Aircraft Industry expects that the new system will be used for supplying electric power to trucks, whose floors are difficult to be lowered. There is a demand to supply power to the auxiliaries of refrigerated trucks by using an external power source when they are parked at convenience stores, etc, the company said.

The technology could also be used to recharge electric cars, perhaps even when paused at traffic lights or parked in car-parks, without the healthy & safety or security hazard of a physical connection.

We recently wrote about some new wireless charging technologies that broke cover at the 2009 CES and wondered aloud if some of them might make their way into the electric vehicle market, particularly induction coupling whose simple mat like induction coil antenna lends itself to under car charging in parking spots or even at traffic lights. Well, it turns out the CEO over at WiTricity has had the same thoughts and is announcing a WiTricity product at the "First German Electric Vehicle Conference" in Bonn Germany today.

There will be two configurations used to charge Evs. The first being the aforementioned mat form factor that can easily be installed in home garages and commercial parking stations. The second is a vertical antenna that presumably lines up with a cars bumper. The vertical installation being more practical where perhaps embedding a coil in the road surface is not cost effective such as road side or curb parking.

No technical details have been released as yet but we'll keep you posted.