New Zealand start-up company EMROD has developed the world's first long-range, high-power, wireless power transmission as an alternative to existing copper line technology.
The Emrod technology uses electromagnetic waves to safely and efficiently transmit energy wirelessly over vast distances. The prototype was designed and developed in Auckland in cooperation with Callaghan Innovation.
Powerco, New Zealand's second largest electricity distribution company, will be the first to test it.
The company was founded by serial tech entrepreneur Greg Kushnir, who was determined to find a technology that can reduce power distribution costs, avoid outages and support renewable energy.
"I wanted to come up with a solution to move all that clean energy around from where it's abundant to where it's needed in a cost-effective, eco-friendly way."
"Energy generation and storage methods have progressed tremendously over the last century, but energy transmission has remained virtually unchanged since Edison, Siemens, and Westinghouse first introduced electric networks based on copper wires 150 years ago," said Greg Kushnir.
Emrod will deliver the next prototype to Powerco in October and will spend two to three months carrying out lab testing and training Powerco personnel before moving to a field trial.
"The system we are currently building for Powerco will transmit only a few kilowatts but we can use the exact same technology to transmit 100 times more power over much longer distances. Wireless systems using Emrod technology can transmit any amount of power current wired solutions transmit," said Kushnir.
