Brainchild876’s brother had read a while ago that scientists were working devising a wireless electricity technology. I think it’s bogus since air is non-conductive. But, like things like that, it gets me thinking: Is wireless electricity possible?
Lightning?
Absolutely it’s possible. The electricity is coverted to microwaves, which can be beamed great distances, and then converted efficiently back into electricity with carefully-designed antennas. This scheme has been considered as a possibility for space-based solar power generation.
And of course there are electric kettles and hotplates and thing available now that work by induction. No wires connecting the heating element to the power supply.
It’s trivial to do it with visible light - all you need is a light bulb and a solar panel. But this is very inefficient and I haven’t seen any application of this. Microwave beams are far more efficient.
Oh, and saying air is non-conductive isn’t entirely accurate. Lightning isn’t made of sausage links, you know.
You don’t have a solar-powered calculator or two? I’ve got 3 or four of them. 
Isn`t it the impurities in the air that are conductive?
No, even a pure gas at atmospheric pressure would have the same conductivity. Gasses are pretty much the same as far as that goes at equal pressure levels. Even copper vapor wouldn’t be much different than air.
Didn’t Tesla create a prototype broadcast electricity generator station?
Yeah, but his scheme involved what amounted to a truly massive Tesla coil. It would have broadcast electricity, alright, but in doing so, would have made your hair stand on end. Thanks, Nikola, but no thanks.
I meant I haven’t seen a light-source/solar-panel combination especially designed as a power transmission system. Though I suppose you are right, turning up the room light to use a solar-powered calculator counts as an example.
I knew what you meant; I was being a smartass. I don’t think you’ll ever see such a transmission method. Solar cells are just too inefficient.
Tesla surmised that one large coil could be made to resonate at high voltage, at a certain frequency. Other coils, spaced some distance away, tuned to this same frequency would resonate and also produce electricity. The problem is that this method is extremely inefficient and can induce charge in virtually any metalic object.
When running my tesla coil, I can illuminate (wirelessly) fluorescent bulbs from several feet away. I can also induce electric discharge in an appropriately tuned coil from a relatively farther distance (as per above).
Note that for maximum electrical transfer, a tesla coil is MOST efficient when there is NO spark output (sparks are “wasted” power, as such).
Is that so? In that case could you please explain why a vacuum circuit breaker doesn’t generate large voltage spikes when it attempts to interrupt at a non current zero.
I was thinking more along the lines of the space fighters from Independance Day. The old one from the '50s just sat dormant until the mothership appeared then everything began turning on. So to step up the OP a little bit: Could a moving hulk of hardware be able to be powered remotely while flying around and not having microwaves pointed at it’s antenna?
Well, the only force that acts over distances and can carry useful energy is the electromagnetic force. If it isn’t some band of EM energy, I can’t imagine what else it could be.
Having said that, I always assumed that the craft from “Area 51” carried its own power source, and turned on because of some remote EM signal that said, basically, “Hey, we’re back”.