At the turn of the last century, there was considerable speculation that meaningful amounts of power might be transmittable wirelessly. Nikolai Tesla conducted extensive experiments, but the constraints of physics frustrated early attempts, particularly the need to generate very short wavelength beams to carry meaningful amounts of power. Today, things are changing. The Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has announced a high-tech project to transfer power, wirelessly, through the air and possibly through space. Called the Persistent Optical Wireless Energy Relay, or POWER program, the agency has selected a three-company team to develop hardware, which in a later phase will be mounted on aircraft for tests. The goal of the project is to create a technology which could be used to power drones and eventually aircraft from ground and possibly space-based energy sources. Problems to be overcome include attenuation of the beam from atmospheric effects and conversion losses where relay stations must be used.
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