FYI,

"Wireless Transmission in Earth's Energy Future"
Environment News Service
http://ens-news.com/ens/nov2002/2002-11-19-01.asp

: Wireless energy transmission could be part of a clean, abundant
: energy future says The Millennium Project of the American Council
: for the United Nations University. To meet the world's growing
: appetite for energy without environmental damage, electricity
: would be converted to microwaves, beamed over long distances by
: satellite, and then reconverted back to electricity.

: Jerome Glenn, Millennium Project director, said Monday, "Instead of
: exporting oil in giant tankers, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Venezuela, and
: other oil producing nations could use their own oil and gas that is
: currently flared away to produce electricity locally and then beam
: it by satellite to other countries' receivers attached to local
: power grids."

: "This has the great benefit of reducing potential catastrophic oil
: spills, managing pollution more locally, and eventually opening up
: new energy sources such solar panels in Earth orbit," said Glenn.

: New funding for wireless energy transmission research is being
: offered by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in collaboration
: with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and
: the Electric Power Research Institute.

: National Science Foundation Program Director Dr. Paul Werbos says
: the long term goal would be to beam down solar energy from space to
: remote sites all over the world. This technology would provide "an
: affordable source of baseload electricity without producing either
: carbon dioxide or nuclear proliferation," he said.

: "If research in carbon sequestration and wireless transmission of
: energy becomes serious, then one day oil producers could become
: electricity suppliers to the world without adding greenhouse gases,
: and a global energy grid could be in space orbit," said Glenn.

: Distribution of energy via orbiting satellites leads to a concept of
: energy management that views the planet as a whole - a world energy
: organization - a concept suggested Monday by the global think tank.

Mark Reiff