Wireless power beaming | Ep 67

Voices

• Col Paul Calhoun, program manager, Tactical Technologies Office
• Host: Tom Shortridge, Public Affairs

Power beaming for energy transport through a multi-path network

“As we look…decades in the future, this could fundamentally change things as we know it across society. So much of our society is tied to our ability to effectively use energy. And what we're trying to do is add a new tool to spread energy to more people more flexibly in order to create a better society, as well as open up a lot of opportunities for the tough challenges that our military has to face.” -Col Paul Calhoun, DARPA program manager

This 13-minute episode of the Voices from DARPA podcast series explores the possibility of an “energy web” that, much like the World Wide Web allows for near-instantaneous communication, could instantly distribute energy from remote, currently untapped sources. Program Manager Col Paul Calhoun describes his bold POWER program, aimed at leveraging power beaming for energy transport through a multi-path network.

The project team plans to demonstrate long-distance wireless power transmission that can power an aircraft. Such a system might also one day readily distribute abundant, far-flung wave or solar-generated power to places in need. “If we can get to a world where we are no longer tying energy production to carbon…it allows us to unlock production without some of the negative impacts,” says Calhoun.