In article ,
Zoltan Szakaly wrote:
You guys can more efficiently transmit energy using microwave
antennas. You can get 60% efficiency by radiating microwaves onto an
antenna that is equipped with microwave diodes.

Better than that, actually. Unfortunately, microwaves lose badly for
long-range transmission except at very high power with very large
receiving antennas. The longer wavelength -- five orders of magnitude
longer than light -- means it's much harder to form tight beams. So you
end up having to use very large antennas on both ends, and that's just not
practical unless you're sending a whole lot of power.

Note that solar arrays are 50%+ efficient on laser light, if the wavelength
is chosen carefully to match the solar cells.
--
MOST launched 30 June; science observations running | Henry Spencer
since Oct; first surprises seen; papers pending. |