From left: Airindam Phani, Dr. Thomas Thundat, Dr. Charles Van Neste.
(Edmonton) Can you imagine a world where you use the earth's soil to transmit electricity to power our mobile devices? The realization of this breakthrough is becoming more legitimate every day and researchers at the University of Alberta are making it possible.
Dr. Thomas Thundat and his team including Dr. Charles Van Neste and Arindam Phani, from the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, have developed a patented technology in which charges can be distributed over large surfaces and, in this instance, over an extent of the earth. The power is transmitted through the soil and collected using special receivers. This employs electrical standing wave resonance to accumulate the distributed charges efficiently from the surface. Like a modern-day Tesla; the technology is designed using a low voltage power source making it safe and efficient.
"The beauty is in the physics of resonance and standing wave receivers" said Phani. "If you take a tuning fork and hit it against a surface, you can't hear the vibrations. But if you hit the fork and bring it close to a guitar string, you can hear a big sound when the frequency of the fork matches that of the string. That's when both start resonating together." The sound that is heard is the dissipated energy of the guitar string's resonance. Electrically, the surface becomes the tuning fork and the receiver is the guitar string.
Two metal rods, both five-feet long, are implemented into the earth's ground in different locations. With an alternating voltage between the rods, the soil acts in two ways: as a heater absorbing the energy and like a coil storing the energy and, distributing the charges over the surface and both rods. "This is completely controllable depending on the frequency of the voltage source and separation of the rods" explained Van Neste. "The rods go back and forth between positive and negative charge polarities". The frequency is defined by how many number of times this is done within one second.
With the knowledge of resonance, the team discovered they could take the standing wave receivers, connect it to the energized soil, and collect the charge. This allows for wireless charging of electronic devices by using the earth's surface. "That's when the magic happens" says Van Neste.
"The applications of this technology are enormous" Thundat explained. "Not only can we power our electronic devices, but we can look into applications for powering our automobiles with smart highway technology." And it's not just for the means of our mobile technology; much of the research was based on the need to distribute energy in rural areas in a more efficient way. In many locations, the soil has the exact properties needed to be an electrical energy conduit.
This is a revolutionary breakthrough. Older evidence claims similar results discovered by Nikola Tesla, yet Tesla's earth transmission technology was never documented, leaving a world of mystery for fellow scientists to re-discover. Other replicated experiments and patents have also been made; however, none have been as successful in their research. There is no doubt that Thundat's team will radically change current technology through their breakthrough technology.
You can find a more in-depth detailing about the research here.