LAB ASSIGNMENT

Wireless Power Transmission Via Solar

Power Satellite

Submitted By : Vachna Ram (191230053)

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY,

DELHI
(Electrical and electronics Engineering)
(2022)
 Wireless Power Transmission Via Solar
Power Satellite

ABSTRACT—In this, we present the concept of Solar Power Satellites -The solar cells in the
satellite will convert sunlight to electricity, which will changed to radio frequency energy,
then beamed to a receiver site on earth and reconverted to electricity by using transmitting
and receiving antenna with the technology of wireless power transmission (i.e., transmitting
power as microwaves in order to reduce the transmission and distribution losses). This
concept is also known as Microwave Power Transmission. The advantages, disadvantages,
biological impacts and applications of WPT are also presented.

Index Terms—Grid, Microwaves, Microwave generator, Nikola Tesla, Rectenna, Solar

Power Satellites (SPS), Transmitting antenna, Wireless Power transmission (WPT).

1 INTRODUCTION
A major problem facing Planet Earth is provision of an adequate supply of clean energy. It
has been that we face "...three simultaneous challenges -- population growth, resource
consumption, and environmental degradation -- all converging particularly in the matter of
sustainable energy supply."
It is widely agreed that our current energy practices will not provide for all the world's
peoples in an adequate way and still leave our Earth with a livable environment. Hence, a
major task for the new century will be to develop sustainable and environmentally friendly
sources of energy.
Projections of future energy needs over this new century show an increase by a factor of at
least two and one Half, perhaps by as much as a factor of five. All of the scenarios from
reference 3 indicate continuing use of fossil sources, nuclear, and large hydro. However, the
greatest increases come from "new renewables" and all scenarios show extensive use of
these sources by 2050. Indeed, the projections indicate that the amount of energy derived
from new renewables by 2050 will exceed that presently provided by oil and gas combined.
This would imply a major change in the world's energy infrastructure. It will be a Herculean
task to acquire this projected amount of energy. This author asserts that there are really
only a few good options for meeting the additional energy needs of the new cen.
Projections of future energy needs over this new century show an increase by a factor of at
least two and one Half, perhaps by as much as a factor of five. All of the scenarios from
reference 3 indicate continuing use of fossil sources, nuclear, and large hydro. However, the
greatest increases come from "new renewables" and all scenarios show extensive use of
these sources by 2050. Indeed, the projections indicate that the amount of energy derived
from new renewables by 2050 will exceed that presently provided by oil and gas combined.
This would imply a major change in the world's energy infrastructure.
As with terrestrial capture, Space Solar Power (SSP) provides a source that is virtually
carbon-free and sustainable. As will be described later, the power-collecting platforms
would most likely operate in geosynchronous orbit where they would be illuminated 24
hours a day (except for short eclipse periods around the equinoxes). Thus, unlike systems
for the terrestrial capture of solar, a space-based system would not be limited by the
vagaries of the day-night cycle. Furthermore, if the transmission frequency is properly
chosen, delivery of power can be carried out essentially independent of weather conditions.
Thus Space Solar Power could provide base load electricity
The Solar Power Satellite energy system is to place giant satellites, covered with vast arrays
of solar cells, in geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles above the Earth's equator. Each satellite
will be illuminated by sunlight 24 hours a day for most of the year. Because of the 23" tilt of
the axis, the satellites pass either above or below the Earth’s shadow. It is only during the
equinox period in the spring and fall that they will pass through the shadow. They will be
shadowed for less than 1% of the time during the year. The solar cells will convert sunlight
to electricity, which will then be changed to radio-frequency energy by a transmitting
antenna on the satellite and beamed to a receiver site on Earth. It will be reconverted to
electricity by the receiving antenna, and the power would then be routed into our normal
electric distribution network for use here on the Earth. One of the major issue in power
system is the losses occurs during the transmission and Distribution of electrical power. As
the Demand increases day by day, the power generation increases and the power loss is also
increased. The percentage of loss of power during transmission and distribution is
approximated as 26%. The main reason for power loss during transmission and distribution
is the resistance of wires used for grid. The efficiency of power transmission can be
improved to certain level by using high strength composite over head conductors and
underground cables that use high temperature super conductor. But, the transmission is still
inefficient. According to the World Resources Institute (WRI), India’s electricity grid has the
highest transmission and distribution losses in the world – a whopping 27%. Numbers
published by various Indian government agencies. Put that number at 30%, 40% and greater
than 40%. This is attributed to technical losses (grid’s inefficiencies) and theft.
Any problem can be solved by state– of-the-art technology. The above discussed problem
can be solved by choose an alternative option for power transmission which could provide
much higher Efficiency, low transmission cost and avoid power theft. Microwave Power
Transmission is one of the promising Technologies and may be the righteous alternative for
efficient power transmission.

2 SEGMENTS OF SPS
The SPS is a gigantic satellite designed as an electric power plant orbiting in the
Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO). It consists of mainly three segments; solar energy collector
to convert the solar energy into DC (direct current) electricity, DC-to-microwave converter,
and large antenna array to beam down the microwave power to the ground. The first solar
collector can be either photovoltaic cells or solar thermal turbine. The second DC-to-
microwave converter of the SPS can be either microwave tube system and/or
semiconductor system. It may be their combination. The third segment is a gigantic antenna
array. An amplitude taper on the transmitting antenna is adopted in order to increase the
beam collection efficiency and to decrease sidelobe level in almost all SPS design. A typical
amplitude taper is called 10 dB Gaussian in which the power density in the center of the
transmitting antenna is ten times larger than that on the edge of the transmitting antenna.
Power will be transmitted over a 1-1/4 mile range to a receiving antenna (rectenna) and
then fed into a commercial utility power grid. Table 1 shows some typical parameters of the
transmitting antenna of the SPS The rectenna array, with a typical radius of approximately 2
km, is animportant element of the radio technology for which high efficiency is essential.
The efficiency depends on the input power, and the input power flux density is not constant
over the entire rectenna site for the SPS system.

Table 1 Typical parameters of the transmitting antenna of the SPS

Model Old JAXA JAXA1 model JAXA2 model NASA/DOE
Model MODEL
Frequency 5.8 GHz 5.8 GHz 5.8 GHz 2.45 GHz
Diameter of 2.6 kmφ 1 kmφ 1.93 kmφ 1 kmφ
Transmitting
antenna
Amplitude taper 10 dB Gaussian 10 dB Gaussian 10 dB Gaussian 10 dB Gaussian
Output power 1.3 GW 1.3 GW 1.3 GW 6.72 GW
(beamed to
earth)
Maximum power 63 mW/ cm^2 420 mW/cm^2 114 mW/cm^2 2.2 W/ cm^2
Density at center
Minimum power 6.3 mW/ cm^2 42 mW/ cm^2 11.4 mW/cm^2 0.22 W/ cm^2
Density at center
Antenna spacing 0.75 λ 0.75 λ 0.75 λ 0.75 λ
Power per one Max. 0.95 W Max. 6.1W (540 Max. 1.7 W Max. 185 W (97
antenna (Number (3.54 billion) million) (1,950 million) million)
of elements)
Rectenna 2.0 kmφ 3.4 kmφ 2.45 kmφ 1 kmφ
diameter
Maximum power 180 mW/cm^2 26 Mw/cm^2 100 mW/cm^2 23 mW/cm^2
Density
Efficiency 96.5 % 86 % 87 % 89 %

3 WIRELESS POWER TRANSMISSION

Nicola Tesla he is who invented radio and shown us he is indeed the “Father of Wireless”.
Nicola Tesla is the one who first conceived the idea Wireless Power Transmission and
demonstrated “the transmission of electrical energy without wires" that depends upon
Electrical conductivity as early as 1891.

COMPONENTS OF WPT SYSTEM

The Primary components of Wireless Power Transmission are Microwave Generator,
Transmitting antenna and Receiving antenna (Rectenna). The components are described in
this chapter.

Microwave Generator
The microwave transmitting devices are classified as Microwave Vacuum Tubes (magnetron,
klystron, Travelling Wave Tube (WT), and Microwave Power Module (MPM)) and
Semiconductor Microwave transmitters (GaAs MESFET, GaN pHEMT, SiC MESFET,
AlGaN/GaN HFET, and InGaAS). Magnetron is widely used for experimentation of WPT. The
microwave transmission often uses 2.45GHz or 5.8GHz of ISM band. The other choices of
frequencies are 8.5 GHz 10 GHz and 35 GHz . The highest efficiency over 90% is achieved at
2.45 GHz among all the frequencies .
Transmitting Antenna The slotted wave guide antenna, microstrip patch antenna, and
parabolic dish antenna are the most popular type of transmitting antenna. The slotted
waveguide antenna is ideal for power transmission because of its high aperture efficiency (>
95%) and high power handling capability.
Rectenna The rectenna is a passive element consists of antenna, rectifying circuit with a low
pass filter between the antenna and rectifying diode. The antenna used in rectenna may be
dipole, Yagi – Uda, microstrip or parabolic dish antenna. The patch dipole antenna achieved
the highest efficiency among the all. Schottky barrier diodes (GaAs-W, Si, and GaAs) are
usually used in the rectifying circuit due to the f aster reverse recovery time and much lower
forward voltage drop and good RF characteristics.
In the transmission side , the microwave power source generates microwave power and the
output power is controlled by electronic control circuits.The waveguide circulator which
protects the microwave source from reflected power is connected with the microwave
power source through the coax- waveguide adaptor.The tuner matches the impedence
between the transmitting antenna and the microwave source .The transmitting antenna
radiates the power uniformly through free space to the rectenna impedance matching is the
practice of designing the input impedance electrical load output impedance to maximize the
power transferor minimize reflections from the load. In the case of a complex source
impedance ZS and load impedance ZL, maximum power transfer is obtained when

where * indicates the complex conjugate. Filters are frequently used to achieve impedance
matching in telecommunications and radio engineering. The power received at the coax
wave guide adaptor is transmitted to the load.
4 CASE STUDIES
The SPS space segment consists of solar cells, RF circuits and antennas, a sensor for the pilot
signal, and a control unit for beamforming and retrodirectivity, and circuit power supply. A 1
GW SPS power plant has the following typical dimensions. The area of a solar cell panel is
approximately 10 km2 (2km x 5km) f or production of 2GW DC power with the solar cell
conversion efficiency of 15%. The transmitting antenna array will typically be 1km in
diameter. The aperture distribution of the transmitting antenna is determined such as
uniform profile or Gaussian profile based on the required beam collecting efficiency.
Assuming an antenna element spacing of 0.75λ =3.8cm at 5.8GHz, a radiator weight density
of 2.69g/cc, and 160 antenna elements, one could get 9.6 kg/ m2 with this design approach.

Ground Segment
A typical rectenna site is 4 km in diameter for a transmitting antenna diameter of 1km
operating at 5.8 GHz. Under these conditions, 93% of the transmitted power is collected.
The peak microwave power density at the rectenna site is 27 mW/cm2 if a Gaussian power
profile is assumed for the transmitter. The beam intensity pattern has a non-uniform
distribution with a higher intensity in the center of the rectenna and a lower intensity at its
periphery as shown in Fig. 2. The safety requirement for the microwave power density for
humans is set to 1mW/cm2 in most countries, which is satisfied at the periphery.

Fig. 3 Typical power density at a rectenna site (1kmf TX antenna with 10dB Gaussian power
distribution)

5 ADVANTAGES
Wireless Power Transmission system would completely eliminates the existing high-tension
power transmission line cables, towers and sub stations between the generating station and
consumers and f acilitates the interconnection of electrical generation plants on a global
scale. It has more freedom of choice of both receiver and transmitters. Even mobile
transmitters and receivers can be chosen f or the WPT system. The cost of transmission and
distribution become less and the cost of electrical energy for the consumer also would be
reduced. The power could be transmitted to the places where the wired transmission is not
possible. Loss of transmission is negligible level in the Wireless Power Transmission;
therefore, the efficiency of this method is very much higher than the wired transmission.
Power is available at the rectenna as long as the WPT is operating. The power failure due to
short circuit and fault on cables would never exist in the transmission and power theft
would be not possible at all. The development of Solar Power Satellites gain the benefits of
abundant, low-cost, nonpolluting energy. The great advantage of placing the solar cells in
space instead of on the ground is that the energy is available 24 hours a day, and the total
solar energy available to the satellite is between four and five times more than is available
anywhere on Earth and 15 times more than the average location.

6 DISADVANTAGES
The Capital Cost for practical implementation of WPT seems to be very high and the other
disadvantage of the concept is interference of microwave with present communication
systems. Heat reduction is most important problem in space. All lost power converts to
heat. We need special heat reduction system in space. If we use high efficient microwave
transmitters, we can reduce weight of heat reduction system. We should aim for over 80 %
efficiency for the microwave transmitter, which must include all loss in phase shifters,
isolators, antennas, power circuits.

7 APPLICATIONS
The SPS is expected to realize around 2030. Before the realization of the SPS, we can
consider the other application of the WPT. In resent years, mobile devices advance quickly
and require decreasing power consumption. It means that we can use the diffused weak
microwave power as a power source of the mobile devices with low power consumption
such as RF-ID. The RF-ID is a radio IC-tug with wireless power transmission and wireless
information. This is a new WPT application like broadcasting.

8 BIOLOGICAL IMPACTS
Common beliefs fear the effect of microwave radiation. But the studies in this domain
repeatedly proves that the microwave radiation level would be never higher than the dose
received while opening the microwave oven door, meaning it is slightly higher than the
emissions created by cellular telephones Cellular telephones operate with power densities
at or below the ANSI/IEEE exposure standards . Thus public exposure to WPT fields would
also be below existing safety guidelines. However Tests have also shown that the energy
density in the radio-frequency beam can be limited to safe levels for all life forms.

9 CONCLUSION
The concept of Microwave Power transmission (MPT) andWireless Power Transmission
system is presented. The technological developments in Wireless Power Transmission
(WPT), the advantages, disadvantages, biological impacts and applications of WPT are also
discussed. This concept offers greater possibilities for transmitting power with negligible
losses and ease of transmission. Furthermore, it appears almost certain that there will be a
shift towards renewable sources and that solar will be a major contributor. It is asserted
that if the energy system of the world is to work for all its people and be adequately robust,
there should be several options to develop in the pursuit of and expanded supply. While the
option of Space Solar Power may seem futuristic at present, it is technologically feasible
and, given appropriate conditions, can become economically viable .

REFERENCE
[1] Nikola Tesla, “The Transmission of Electrical Energy Without Wires as a Means for
Furthering Peace,” Electrical World and Engineer. Jan. 7, p. 21, 1905.
[2] Point-To-Point Wireless Power Transportation in Reunion Island 48th International
Astronautical Congress, Turin, Italy, 6-10 October 1997 - IAF-97- R.4.08 J. D. Lan Sun Luk, A.
Celeste, P. Romanacce, L.
Chane Kuang Sang, J. C. Gatina - University of La Réunion - Faculty of Science and
Technology.
[3] Brown, W. C., “Beamed microwave power transmission and its application to space”,
IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 40, no. 6, 1992, pp.1239-1250.
[4] Supporting Document for the URSI White Paper on Solar Power Satellite Systems ,2006.
[5] McSpadden, J. O. and J. C. Mankins, “Space Solar Power Programs and Microwave
Wireless”.
[6] Glaser, P. E., “Power f rom the Sun, Science”, No.162, 1968, pp.857-886.Power
Transmission Technology”, IEEE Microwave Magazine, December 2002, pp.46-57.
[7] Matsumoto, H., “Research on Solar Power Station and Microwave Power Transmission
in Japan : Review and Perspectives”, IEEE Microwave Magazine, December 2002, pp.36-45.
[8] Sivan, L., “Microwave Tube Transmitters Microwave Technology Series 9-“, Chapman
&Hall, 1994