Block’s Indicator of Sustainable Growth

by Ray Block

You may have heard of a new technology called WITricity, also the name of the company developing the MIT technology of wireless electricity.

At first sight, it would seem a game of magic, where you can transmit power through the air. The reality is that you will soon be able to throw away the electrical cords to keep a mobile phone or laptop battery perpetually charged. Disposable dc batteries will eventually be a thing of the past.

The technology goes back to the end of the 19th century, where Thomas Edison and Nicola Tesla were fighting for supremacy in the beginnings of the  electricity market. Edison was supreme in direct current, in which a whole string of identical Edison companies were set up in each of the major American cities to light up the streets.

By comparison, Tesla,  having been initially employed by Edison, teamed up with Westinghouse,  and later on in his own laboratory developed alternating current. He conceived the rotating magnetic field principle in 1882, and  then used it to invent the induction motor.  Together with the alternating current, Telsa made possible the  transmission of electricity over long distances. This was in 1888. 

Telsa, a Serb born American physicist and electrical engineer had the spark of genius. He was  the true inventor of radio (rather than  Marconi), and created the fundamental principles and machinery of wireless technology.

Marin Soljacic,  Croat born American physicist is the inventor of WITricity. An assistant professor of physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology at Cambridge (MA),  he was one of 25 recipients of  a genius fellowship from the John D MacArthur and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation. This was in 2008.

Soljacic, now 35, is developing in the Telsa tradition of wireless technology. Like Tesla,  he has been excited by aspects of electromagnetic waves with implications for fundamental principles of optical physics. This has now led to devices such as switches for optical computers and wireless power transmitters.

MIT says the optical switch is a major breakthrouugh, and is analogous to the transistor in current day microprocessors. In July 2007, he published a paper revisiting Tesla’s concept that electrical power can be transmitted wirelessly.

Soljacic demonstrated that strongly coupled magnetic resonances can wirelessly transfer 60 watts of power over two metres with reasonable efficiency and low electrical field emissions.

The aim of WITricity the company is to develop wireless power transmission to a commercial scale, so that devices in homes, offices and hospitals that use significant amounts of power won’t need batteries or wallsocket connections.

When you think about it, saving significant amounts of power is a major step forward in reducing carbon emissions in the new world, where renewable energy will one day rule the world. In the US, and most other advanced countries, buildings consume 40 per cent of all energy and over 7o per cent of electricity consumption.

WITricity Corp was founded in 2007, and has a long way to go before becoming profitable. But when you conceive that a heart by pass patient, with a pacemaker may one day potentially have the battery recharged, without a further surgical procedure, you know you’re on a winner.

The intellectual property is based on the magnetic field of two properly designed devices, with closely matched resonant frequencies, being able to  couple  into a single continous magnetic field. This allows the transfer of power from one device to the other at high efficiency.

The publication Fast Money (Issue 132 February 2009) says that at this stage the dominant player in this niche market is Fulton Innovations, a  subsidiary of Amway.

Being a a high tech fan, my bet is on the MIT spin off.

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