Wireless power transmission under spotlight in GB

Wireless power transfer is gaining momentum in numerous contexts, from homes to electric vehicles to space-based solar. Now, National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED) has launched an innovation project to investigate its potential to supplement or replace overhead lines and cables.

With support from Ofgem’s ‘Strategic innovation fund’, NGED is partnering with the UK space-based solar pioneer Space Solar to assess issues such as how wireless power transmission could deliver benefits during emergency responses by restoring power to customers more quickly and could help better serve customers in remote areas.

“Innovative thinking is fundamental to supporting the transition to a cleaner energy future,” commented Tim Polack, NGED’s Director of Strategy and Transformation.

“The wireless power transmission project will explore how state-of-the-art technology could transform the electricity network to deliver resilience, cost and connection benefits to customers.” 

Other potential benefits of wireless power include temporary connections for construction sites, connecting offshore renewables and reducing impacts in national landscapes without the needs for pylons and other infrastructure.

Sam Adlen, co-CEO of Space Solar, adds the company’s delight to be working with National Grid on this project.

“We have all seen the revolution that wireless technology enabled with communications. As energy demand accelerates, advances in wireless power transmission offer great potential to support our growing electricity infrastructure needs.” 

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The project aims to identify, define and evaluate high-impact use cases for wireless power transmission to address grid connection delays, capture stakeholder requirements and constraints and assess the technical feasibility of solutions compared to conventional wired alternatives.

The project will then analyse the economic, environmental, technical and regulatory benefits of wireless power transmission-for-grid solutions in high-priority scenarios, while identifying barriers to adoption and potential mitigation strategies. 

A pathway for demonstration, adoption and scaling of the technology in the UK electricity system is planned, with the outcome a roadmap to grid-scale deployment and integration into network planning.

Viability of wireless power transmission

Transmitting high power wirelessly over long distances safely represents a step change from the current state of the art, where no products or services exist at grid-relevant power levels.

At this stage of development, the technology is at TRL 4, i.e. pre-protoype phase, along with integration readiness level (IRL) 2 and commercial readiness level (CRL) 2. The aim is to progress to TRL 4, IRL 3 and CRL 4, from which it can be further developed.

The project draws on significant previous research, including Space Solar’s 18-month CASSiDI project completed in April 2025, which demonstrated the technical viability and scalability of wireless power transmission for space-based solar power.

Its overall aim was to advance key aspects of the design of Space Solar’s CASSIOPeiA satellite, of which wireless power transfer was one and has led to a high power density variant for terrestrial use.

One use case is to wirelessly power drones, which is being investigated by researchers at Queens University Belfast’s School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. A primary focus is on advancing the transmission and receiver technologies, with one approach being investigated is the use of distributed wireless power transfer with a network of low power transmitters instead of a single high power transmitter.

Currently, the record for wireless power transfer is claimed by Star Catcher Industries of more than 1.1kW, although the distance of the transfer was not specified.

Previously, the record was held by the US Defence Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) POWER programme, which reported 0.8kW over 8.6km in a 30-second transmission in June 2025. 

The drone-focused programme has achieved 60W at 6m, using ~10W per element.

Wireless power transfer for the grid obviously has to go well beyond these efforts by advancing to hundreds of kW per link, most likely with modular architectures and integrated control and safety systems tailored for electricity networks.