WASHINGTON – A team of researchers from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory recently demonstrated the feasibility of terrestrial microwave power beaming by transmitting 1.6 kilowatts of power over 1 kilometer (km) at the U.S. Army Research Field in Blossom Point, Md., the most significant power beaming demonstration in nearly 50 years.
Microwave power beaming is the efficient, point-to-point transfer of electrical energy across free space by a directive microwave beam. The project, Safe and COntinuous Power bEaming – Microwave (SCOPE-M), was funded by the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering’s Operational Energy Capability Improvement Fund and led by the project principal investigator, Christopher Rodenbeck, Ph.D., Head of the Advanced Concepts Group, NRL.