For more than a century, wireless power sounded like a party trick from the age of coils and crackling sparks. Now it is quietly turning into infrastructure, with real systems moving electricity through air, across fields, and even between spacecraft. The shift is not theoretical anymore, it is being measured in kilowatts, miles, and commercial contracts.
What once looked like a fringe experiment is starting to resemble a new layer of the grid, one that could beam energy to homes, vehicles, and remote equipment without a single copper cable in sight. The technology is still early and heavily engineered, but the first deployments show why wireless power transmission is finally here and why its implications are, frankly, wild.
From Nikola Tesla’s dream to working hardware
The modern story of wireless power still begins with Nikola Tesla, whose early twentieth century experiments tried to send electricity through the air long before the components existed to make it practical. His ambition to move energy without wires was so far ahead of its time that, as one analysis notes, it contributed to his financial collapse, since the technology of the era simply could not match the scale of his ideas and, Unfortunately, investors lost patience. Today’s engineers are revisiting that same vision with far better electronics, antennas, and control systems, and they are doing it with a clear eye on safety and efficiency rather than spectacle.
In fact, some researchers now argue that we are only just catching up to where Nikola Tesla was conceptually more than a century ago, but with a crucial difference: the focus has shifted from broadcasting raw power in all directions to steering it precisely. Contemporary projects use phased microwave arrays, rectifying antennas, and tight beams to move energy where it is needed, instead of trying to electrify the entire sky. That change in mindset, from grandiose to targeted, is what is turning a romantic idea into deployable infrastructure.
Beaming grid power across miles
The most striking proof that long range wireless power is real comes from large scale demonstrations that move meaningful energy over open air. In one high profile experiment, Darpa managed to transmit 1.6 k of power over a distance of 5 miles using focused microwaves and high efficiency rectennas, turning a science fiction style beam into a measurable, controllable energy link. A separate description of the same achievement frames it as “Power unleashed,” with Darpa beaming Energy over 5 miles with zero wires, underscoring how far the underlying radio and antenna technology has come in a relatively short time. I see these tests less as stunts and more as early blueprints for how remote bases, islands, or disaster zones might be supplied without stringing new lines.
Commercial players are now trying to turn that kind of physics into everyday infrastructure. In New Zealand, a company called Emrod has persuaded a major power distributor to trial what is described as a world first commercial long range wireless power link, a milestone that one report notes has taken 120 years to arrive since the earliest experiments. The system uses a chain of rectenna panels to relay energy across gaps that would be expensive or environmentally sensitive to span with conventional lines, and it is being framed as a way for New Zealand to “have a crack” at going wireless in a commercial capacity rather than just in the lab.
From space solar arrays to silent city links
Orbit is becoming an unexpected test bed for this technology. A project known as MAPLE, short for Microwave Array for Power, Low, Experiment, has already demonstrated wireless power transfer between elements of a space solar power demonstrator. The goal is to harvest solar energy in orbit, where sunlight is constant, and then send that power as a microwave beam to receivers, potentially on the ground. I see this as a crucial proof that the same core hardware can work in the harshest possible environment, where maintenance is impossible and efficiency is everything.
Closer to home, companies are pitching wireless electricity as a way to route grid power around obstacles and into dense neighborhoods without digging up streets. One detailed overview of wireless electricity describes how phased arrays and rectennas could beam power directly to rooftop receivers, effectively turning buildings into nodes on a radio based grid. In that context, Rick Hodgson, the business development manager for the New Zealand based power beaming company EMROD, argues that wireless energy transmission is finally being taken seriously as a complement to conventional lines rather than a replacement, a framing that makes the technology far easier to integrate into existing planning rules and business models.
Electric vehicles and the race to cut the cord
Nowhere is the appeal of invisible power stronger than in transport. Electric vehicles are already familiar with short range inductive charging, the same basic principle used in many phone chargers, and one analysis of electric vehicles notes that wireless pads are starting to appear in real world pilots. A deeper technical explainer on Wireless charging points out that Inductive systems for cars typically operate around the same frequency, around 85 kilohertz, and can already match the convenience expectations of drivers who are used to simply parking and walking away. I see this as the gateway drug for broader wireless power, because it solves a daily annoyance rather than an abstract grid problem.
The performance numbers are starting to look serious as well. A discussion of a record setting charger notes that a company called Witricity is claiming 88 to 94% efficiency on its wireless EV charging technology, which is on par with a typical wired Level 2 installation and delivered at power levels that can realistically refill a modern battery pack. At the more speculative end of the spectrum, a video titled Tesla Unlocks Cybercab has circulated around the idea that Elon and his team could eventually lean on wireless power to keep autonomous fleets topped up without human intervention, although the specific content of that clip is not available for verification and should be treated as unverified based on available sources.
National experiments and the road to mainstream
National level pilots are starting to show how wireless electricity might fit into everyday infrastructure. In Finland, a widely shared report describes a Breakthrough in which Wireless Electricity Transmission Engineers have achieved what was once considered impossible, creating a system that is described as silent, invisible, and effectively limitless within its design envelope. The same account emphasizes that this is not a lab curiosity but a field scale demonstration, suggesting that regulators and utilities are now comfortable enough with the safety case to let real power flow through the air in a populated country like Finland.
Other commentators are careful to remind readers that the dream has been around for over a century, and that, as one analysis puts it, Well, the technology back then just was not up to the task. A separate overview of wireless electricity argues that the difference now is the maturity of power electronics, control software, and safety standards, which allow beams to be shut down instantly if something strays into the path. Even popular science videos, such as one that walks through how modern researchers are trying to bring to life the idea of a scientist named Nico, presented by Jun in a segment on Wireless Power transmission, are helping to normalize the concept for a broader audience by showing working prototypes instead of just animations.
More from Morning Overview
*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
